Norm Kelly
Encyclopedia
Norman "Norm" Kelly is a Canadian politician. He is a city councillor in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 representing one of two municipal wards that make up the jurisdiction of Scarborough—Agincourt
Scarborough—Agincourt
Scarborough—Agincourt is a federal electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1988.It covers the northwest of the Scarborough part of Toronto...

.

Background

Kelly is a trained historian. He studied Canadian political history at the University of Western Ontario (undergraduate) and Carleton and Queen’s universities (post-graduate). Among his most important accomplishments, Kelly undertook a two-year research project for the two best-selling books in the field of Canadian history: The National Dream and The Last Spike, written by Pierre Berton
Pierre Berton
Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist....

. Kelly won the Governor General's Award for his work in The National Dream . The The National Dream has also been transferred to television by CBC in a very popular, award-winning documentary series of the same name .

Kelly later became a history teacher at Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College
Upper Canada College , located in midtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is an independent elementary and secondary school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The secondary school segment is divided into ten houses; eight are...

, a private school in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

.

Early political career

When he first entered politics as an alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...

 on the borough council of Scarborough
Scarborough, Ontario
Scarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Steeles Avenue East, and on the east by the Rouge River...

, then a suburb of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

. Kelly served from 1974 to 1980.

Federal politics

He was elected as a federal Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Scarborough Centre in the 1980 election
Canadian federal election, 1980
The Canadian federal election of 1980 was held on February 18, 1980 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 32nd Parliament of Canada...

, defeating Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 (PC) incumbent Diane Stratas
Diane Stratas
Diane Rose Stratas was a Progressive Conservative member of the Canadian House of Commons. She was a businesswoman and community service volunteer by career. The middle daughter of immigrants from Kastri, Greece who lived in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, she is married to retired veterinarian, William...

. Kelly was twice appointed Parliamentary Secretary: first, to the Ministry of Supply and Services and then to the President of the Treasury Board. In this latter capacity, Kelly was given the responsibility of guiding the Government’s reorganization of its Crown Corporations, Bill C-124, through the House of Commons and its Committees. Kelly was also appointed in 1983 to the Special Committee on Visible Minorities in Canadian Society. This Committee was charged with the responsibility of doing research on the status of visible minorities in Canadian society . The report, Equality Now, contained 80 ground breaking recommendations aimed at protecting visible minority cultures in Canada while integrating their members into the Canadian mainstream .

Kelly was himself defeated in the 1984 election
Canadian federal election, 1984
The Canadian federal election of 1984 was held on September 4 of that year to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 33rd Parliament of Canada...

, losing to PC candidate Pauline Browes
Pauline Browes
Pauline Browes, PC is a Canadian politician. She was a Member of Parliament between 1984 and 1993.An educator by training, Browes was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Scarborough Centre in the 1984 federal election that brought...

.

He attempted to win the Liberal nomination prior to the 1988 election
Canadian federal election, 1988
The Canadian federal election of 1988 was held November 21, 1988, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 34th Parliament of Canada. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement ....

, but quit the race when Odysseus Katsaitis emerged as the front runner. Instead, he decided to again run for mayor, but this time lost to Joyce Trimmer
Joyce Trimmer
Joyce Trimmer was a Canadian politician. She was the first woman mayor of Scarborough, Ontario.Born in London, England, Trimmer emigrated to Toronto with her husband Douglas in 1954, where they settled on the Toronto Islands.Working as a secretary and then a business and typing teacher at...

 by over 4,000 votes. Prior to the 1993 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1993
The Canadian federal election of 1993 was held on October 25 of that year to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 35th Parliament of Canada. Fourteen parties competed for the 295 seats in the House at that time...

, he again tried for a Liberal nomination, but this time lost to John Cannis
John Cannis
John Cannis is a former member of the House of Commons in Canada.-Background:Born in Kalymnos, Greece, Cannis was raised and educated in Toronto, Ontario. A successful entrepreneur for 18 years, Cannis owned a Toronto-based international executive search firm and was a member in good standing of...

.

Campaign for mayor

In 1985, he ran for mayor of Scarborough, but lost to incumbent Gus Harris
Gus Harris
Augustus John Harris was a Canadian politician. He was born in Liverpool, United Kingdom. He was the mayor of Scarborough, Ontario from 1978 to 1988....

. Out of office, he worked as a real estate agent, first for Royal LePage
Royal LePage
Royal LePage is a Canadian real estate franchiser and owner-operator with more than 600 locations and over 13,000 Realtors in Canada. Founded in 1913 by Albert E. LePage, Royal LePage is now owned by the Brookfield Real Estate Services Fund.-External links:...

 and then for his own company.

Return to council

In the 1994 municipal elections, he was elected to the Metro Toronto council from ward Scarborough/Wexford, defeating Michael Thompson
Michael Thompson (Canadian politician)
Michael Thompson is a city councillor in Toronto, Canada. He represents Ward 37, the western half of Scarborough Centre. Raised in Scarborough he has a BA in Economics from Concordia University. He is a Black Canadian....

. He emerged as one of the most right-wing members of the council, most noted for his attempt to eliminate all funding for multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...

 programs during a mock council. Kelly took this stance as he views multicultural programs to further segregate rather than integrate diverse members of the Canadian community. The National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...

newspaper once endorsed him, perhaps somewhat in jest, as "a solid anti-communist. Toronto needs his representation as a bulwark against the left." He also became one of the earliest advocates for merging the City of Toronto with five of its suburbs, an idea he pushed as Chair of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.

When the "megacity" was created, he was elected to the new Toronto city council. In the 2000 municipal election
Toronto municipal election, 2000
The Toronto municipal election of 2000, dubbed "Toronto Vote 2000" was the municipal and school board election held in the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada on November 13, 2000.Elections were held to elect:* the Mayor of Toronto,* councillors for each of Toronto's 44 wards,* trustees...

, redistricting merged Kelly and Tzekas' wards, leading to a bitter election battle between the two, which Kelly easily won. A firm ally of the new city's first mayor, Mel Lastman
Mel Lastman
Melvin Douglas "Mel" Lastman , nicknamed "Mayor Mel", is a former businessman and politician. He is the founder of the Bad Boy Furniture chain. He served as the mayor of the former city of North York, Ontario, Canada from 1972 until 1997. At the end of 1997, North York, along with five other...

, his relations with Lastman's successor, David Miller, have been less friendly.

Election results

2010 Toronto election
Toronto city council election, 2010
For information on the campaign for mayor see Toronto mayoral election, 2010The 2010 Toronto council election was held on October 25, 2010 to elect councillors to represent Toronto's 44 wards at Toronto City Council...

, Ward 40
Candidate Votes %
Norm Kelly 12,458 74.001%
Ken Sy 1,935 11.494%
Bryan Heal 1,862 11.06%
Cheng-Chih Tsai 580 3.445%
Total 16,835 100%

Unofficial results as of October 26, 2010 03:55 AM

External links

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