Barbara Greene (born 1 September 1945) is a former
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
politician. She served in the
House of Commons of Canada
The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada.
The House of Common ...
from 1988 to 1993 as a member of the
Progressive Conservative Party. She was previously a municipal politician in
North York
North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a popu ...
, and campaigned for
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of the city in 1985. She is a
Red Tory
A Red Tory is an adherent of a centre to centre-right or paternalistic-conservative political philosophy derived from the Tory tradition, most predominantly in Canada but also in the United Kingdom and Australia. This philosophy tends to favour ...
, and holds progressive views on most social issues.
Early life and career
Greene was born in
Pembroke in eastern Ontario, where her father was stationed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Her parents were Alfred Greene and Mary Margaret Greene (née Hutchinson) of Toronto. Both were graduates of St. Michael's College,
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
. Her parents returned to Toronto following the war, and she attended St. Monica's Separate School in North Toronto. She graduated from St Michael's College, University of Toronto in 1966 with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in English and from the College of Education in 1967 with qualifications in English and Theatre Arts. She taught English at Victoria Park Secondary School for the North York Board of Education from September 1967 until she was elected to office in 1972.
Municipal politician
North York City Controller, 1972-1980
Greene was first elected to the North York Council in December 1972, winning a position on the city's
Board of Control, the first woman elected to the body.
Her position on the Board of Control gave her an automatic seat on the
Metropolitan Toronto Council
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an Regional municipality, upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the Old Toronto, old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and vill ...
. Greene's first campaign was centred primarily around a zoning issue: she opposed a municipal
bylaw
A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...
restricting cohabitation by people unless they were related or one person was an owner (she and her female housemates had been threatened with eviction under the terms of this bylaw). Greene also argued that she would speak for the rights of women, single persons, tenants and salaried workers. One of the first issues she was involved in was the Ambulance service. She fought a "one woman war" which resulted in the amalgamation of ambulances services in Metropolitan Toronto and the establishment of the Toronto Ambulance Service.
She was re-elected to the Board of Control in 1974, 1976 and 1978 before standing down in 1980. As a result of topping the poll for the Board of Control (on which sat the Mayor and four Controllers elected at-large), Greene became the Deputy Mayor of North York in 1974. In this capacity she sat on the Executive Committee and Budget sub committee of Metropolitan Toronto and reviewed the budgets of numerous departments at various times including those of the Community Services and Housing departments, the Police and the Ambulance Departments. She also ran for the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...
in the
1975 provincial election, losing to
New Democrat
New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturall ...
Odoardo Di Santo
Odoardo Di Santo (born June 25, 1934) is a politician and administrator in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1985, as a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP).
Background
Di Santo was born in Rocc ...
in
Downsview
Downsview is a neighbourhood in the north end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located in the district of North York. The area takes its name from the Downs View farm established around 1842 near the present-day intersection of Keele Street and Wilso ...
.
Greene's support for cohabitation law reform placed her in opposition to North York Mayor
Mel Lastman
Melvin Douglas Lastman (March 9, 1933 – December 11, 2021) was a Canadian businessman and politician who served as the third mayor of North York from 1973 to 1997 and 62nd mayor of Toronto from 1998 to 2003. He was the first person to serve ...
, who initially supported her but then attempted to exclude boarding houses from the city. Following an eight-year legal battle conducted by lawyer Barry Swadron QC, on behalf of Doug Bell, a resident of North York who had been charged with living with other people to whom he was not related, the
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
upheld Greene's position and struck down the municipal
bylaw
A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...
in April 1979.
Greene favoured market-value assessment reforms for Metro Toronto properties, and criticized provincial
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance.
Government
The treasury o ...
Darcy McKeough
William Darcy McKeough, (born January 31, 1933) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1963 to 1978 who represented the ridings of Kent West and Chatham†...
for backing away from this proposal in 1978. In 1979, she spoke out against
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
advertising on the
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
. She also supported electoral reforms, including the abolition of regional Boards of Control and the direct election of the Metro Chair.
She considered running against Lastman for
Mayor of North York
North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Toronto, York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough, Toronto, Scarborough to the east. ...
in 1980, but declined on the grounds that she did not have the financial resources to conduct a successful campaign. She did not seek re-election to the Board of Control, and instead announced that she would enrol in a Master of Public Administration (postgraduate) program at
Harvard Kennedy School
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
. Greene sought a prominent civil service position after returning to Toronto, but was unsuccessful and returned to teaching high-school English.
North York City Controller, 1982-1985
Greene returned to municipal politics in 1982, winning election to the second position on North York's Board of Control and receiving an automatic position on Metro's executive committee. She argued for cutbacks to the
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
's budget, arguing that it had become "out of control" by 1984. Greene supported the direct election of Metro Councillors, on the grounds that indirectly elected council members were not sufficiently accountable.
She resumed her previous role as a prominent critic of Mel Lastman, arguing that his style of politics favoured backroom deals and often removed councillors from the decision-making process. Greene also called for the resignation of city planning commissioner Bruce Davidson in August 1983, arguing that his $265,000 debt to a major developer created a serious conflict-of-interest situation. She was one of only four councillors to oppose significant cutbacks to North York's public health department in June 1984, and was subsequently the only City Controller to support an
affirmative action program for city.
Greene accused North York Councillor
Andrew Borins of improper behaviour in 1983–84, arguing that his family's property holdings put him in an undeclared conflict of interest over the proposed North York Civic Centre. Borins sued Greene for slander and Greene responded by charging Borins with Conflict of Interest. Borins was successful in the lower courts on 20 March 1984, but this decision was overturned on appeal. A Divisional Court judge subsequently upheld Greene's accusation, and stripped Borins of his council seat on 16 April 1985.
She was offered the Progressive Conservative Party's nomination for
Eglinton—Lawrence
Eglinton—Lawrence is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1979.
It covers a portion of Toronto northwest of downtown. It stretches from Yonge Street in the ea ...
in the
1984 federal election, but declined.
Greene challenged Mel Lastman for
Mayor of North York
North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Toronto, York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough, Toronto, Scarborough to the east. ...
in 1985, promising a more open government and arguing that Lastman had "den
edNorth York residents the right to participate in planning their neighborhoods". She was defeated by a significant margin, in a contest marked by undisguised animosity between the candidates. Greene returned to teaching after the election, teaching Media Studies, English and Dramatic Arts with the North York Board of Education.
Member of Parliament
Greene returned to political life again in 1988, narrowly winning the federal Progressive Conservative nomination for
Don Valley North
Don Valley North (french: Don Valley-Nord) is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1997 and since 2015. Don Valley North ...
over Peter Ayre Phillips. She subsequently won the riding in the
1988 federal election, defeating
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
Sarkis Assadourian
Sarkis Assadourian (born January 25, 1948) is a Canadian politician from the Liberal Party of Canada. He became the first Armenian-Canadian to be elected to the House of Commons, with great support of the Armenian community of Toronto.
Backgr ...
by a close margin. (Concert pianist
Anton Kuerti
Anton Emil Kuerti, OC (born July 21, 1938) is an Austrian-born Canadian pianist, music teacher, composer, and conductor. He has developed international recognition as a solo pianist.[New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
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.) There was some media speculation that Greene would be appointed to
cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
, but she instead served in parliament as a backbench supporter of
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993.
Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political sci ...
's government.
Greene encouraged the Progressive Conservative government to change a section of the Immigration Act in 1989, saying that it discriminated against disabled people. She also argued that Canadian copyright laws should be adjusted to permit teachers to copy and reproduce material for classroom analysis. In late November 1989, she was appointed to a parliamentary task force examining Canada's
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...
laws.
Greene protested against her own government's cutbacks to multicultural organizations in 1990. She chaired the parliamentary standing committee on Health, Welfare, Social Affairs, Seniors and Status of Women and two subcommittees on Child Poverty and the Status of women. Her committee's report on violence, entitled "The War Against Women", was supported by the prime minister and opposition parties, but opposed by some Progressive Conservative backbenchers on the grounds that its title was "confrontational and inflammatory". This subsequently resulted in a significant program to combat violence against women which included funds for
women's shelter
A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used to ...
s and education programs for police.
Greene supported stricter firearms controls, and announced plans to introduce a bill creating a national firearms registry in late 1991. The initiative was opposed by many in her party. She also supported changing Canadian laws to outlaw discrimination based on
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
In April 1991, Greene called for existing tax and social benefits to be rolled into a single national child support program targeted to benefit low-income Canadians. Greene argued that existing benefits favoured wealthier families over the poor, and that the balance needed to be changed. Critics expressed concern that the proposed changes would threaten the universality of these programs, and reduce benefits for vulnerable middle-income families. The Mulroney government implemented the child tax credit program but did not implement the recommendations in the report for a national day care program which it had initially supported. Greene tried to convince her government to re-establish the program later in the year, without success. Greene also sought to create a national standard for social assistance to eliminate the wide disparities between the provinces.
Greene called for an adequate income and programs to assist social assistance recipients to become independent as an alternative to food banks, which she argued were creating an unwanted culture of dependence.
Gerard Kennedy
Gerard Michael Kennedy (born July 24, 1960) is a Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as Ontario's minister of Education from 2003 to 2006, when he resigned to make an unsuccessful bid for the leadership of the Liberal Party of C ...
, the director of Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank, said that her comments reflected a "superficial analysis" of hunger issues in Canada. Greene did not call for food banks to be shut down, despite some reports to the contrary.
Greene also argued that poverty had become a poorly defined concept in Canada, as the Low Income Cut Offs used to determine poverty levels in Canada did not include other subsidies. She argued that many people listed as being below the poverty line in Canada were not actually poor, while some of the real poor were not being assisted. She was quoted as saying, "Some of our poor may be the most well-off poor in the world. Our poor have their own apartments and televisions." Several opposition MPs and social agencies criticized Greene's comments, arguing that she was misrepresenting the issue.
Greene argued that
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...
was becoming a problem of epidemic proportions in 1992, and argued that the federal Department of Health had become too dependent on information from drug manufacturers in regulating its treatment. She supported the creation of a new arms-length agency to approve drugs and other biomedical products. Her committee report on breast cancer resulted in a $50 million research funding program for which she received a national award from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation in 1992.
Greene supported
Kim Campbell
Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Campbell is the first and so far only female p ...
's 1993 bid to succeed Mulroney as Progressive Conservative leader and prime minister, arguing that Campbell's ideology was fiscally conservative and socially liberal. After Campbell's victory at the
1993 Progressive Conservative leadership convention
The 1993 Progressive Conservative leadership election was held on June 13, 1993 to choose a leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, with Kim Campbell winning the vote in the second ballot. She became the first female Prime Minis ...
, there was renewed speculation that Greene would be appointed to cabinet. She was not, although she was appointed as
parliamentary secretary to the
President of the Treasury Board
The president of the Treasury Board () is a minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet. The president is the chair of the Treasury Board of Canada (a committee of Cabinet in the Privy Council) and is the minister responsible for the Treasury B ...
on 1 September 1993.
The Progressive Conservatives were resoundingly defeated in the
1993 federal election, and Greene lost to Liberal candidate
Sarkis Assadourian
Sarkis Assadourian (born January 25, 1948) is a Canadian politician from the Liberal Party of Canada. He became the first Armenian-Canadian to be elected to the House of Commons, with great support of the Armenian community of Toronto.
Backgr ...
by a significant margin in a rematch from 1988.
After 1993
Greene returned to her teaching career after leaving federal politics.
[Caroline Mallan, "The son, the veteran and the pilot", ''Toronto Star'', 19 August 1999, A21.] She attempted a political comeback as a provincial Progressive Conservative candidate in a 1997
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
, but was defeated by
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
David Caplan
David Richard Caplan (November 15, 1964 – July 24, 2019) was a Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who represented the ridings of Oriole and Don Valley East from 1997 to 2011 a ...
in the North York riding of
Oriole.
Personal life
Greene has one daughter. Greene's pregnancy in 1978 received significant media attention not only because of the novelty, at the time, of being a pregnant female politician but because she was unmarried and declined to name the father. She is likely the first unmarried Canadian politician to give birth while in office.
Electoral record
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Barbara
1945 births
Women members of the House of Commons of Canada
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
Living people
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
Metropolitan Toronto councillors
People from North York
People from Pembroke, Ontario
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs
University of Toronto alumni
Women in Ontario politics
Women municipal councillors in Canada