Gordon Cressy (born 1943) is a former

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politician, who served on

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from 1978 to 1982."Gordon Cressy fonds",

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Background

Cressy was born in 1943 in Toronto, and attended Lawrence Park Collegiate and Northern Secondary School. He graduated from

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Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1967 with a degree in science, and from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

in 1969 with a

Master of Social Work The Master of Social Work (MSW) is a master's degree in the field of social work. It is a professional degree with specializations compared to Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). MSW promotes macro-, mezzo- and micro-aspects of professional social work ...

degree. He worked as executive director of a group home for teenagers, and as a project director for the

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) is Canada's only all-graduate institute of teaching, learning and research, located in Toronto, Ontario. It is located directly above the St. George subway st ...

Political career

He first entered politics in 1970, winning election as a school trustee on the

Toronto Board of Education The Toronto Board of Education (TBE; commonly known as School District 15), officially known as the Board of Education for the City of Toronto, is the former secular school district serving the pre-merged city of Toronto. The board offices were l ...

. He served as chair of the board in 1975 and 1976. Cressy ran as an

Ontario New Democratic Party The Ontario New Democratic Party (french: link=no, Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Ontario; abbr. ONDP or NDP) is a social-democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. The party currently forms the Official Opposition in Ontario following th ...

candidate in St. David for the 1977 provincial election, losing to incumbent MPP

Margaret Scrivener Margaret Mary Burgoyne-Howse Scrivener (c. 1922 – September 11, 1997) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Progressive Conservative Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1985 who represented the downtow ...

. The following year, he won a seat on city council in the 1978 municipal election, succeeding

John Sewell John Sewell (born December 8, 1940) is a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as the 58th mayor of Toronto from 1978 to 1980. Background Born and raised in the Beach neighbourhood, in Toronto, Sewell attended Malvern Collegiate Institut ...

in the Ward 7 seat Sewell had vacated in order to run for

Mayor of Toronto The mayor of Toronto is the head of Toronto City Council and chief executive officer of the municipal government. The mayor is elected alongside city council every four years on the fourth Monday of October; there are no term limits. While in ...

. As senior alderman, he also represented the ward on Metro Toronto Council. He served on the executive committees of both councils, as chairman of the Port Industrial Task Force in 1979, and as chairman of the Metropolitan Toronto Social Services and Housing Committee in 1980. He retired from elected politics in 1982 to accept a job as president of the Toronto chapter of the

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, and was succeeded in the 1982 municipal election by

Joanne Campbell Joanne Campbell (8 February 1964 – 20 December 2002) was a British actress and drama therapist best known for playing Liz in the 1980s sitcom '' Me and My Girl'' and Josephine Baker on stage in ''This Is My Dream''.Hedley, Philip"Obituary: ...

."Results good news for Eggleton: Council tilts to conservatives as NDP loses support". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', November 9, 1982. At the time of the election, Campbell was an executive assistant in Cressy's office; she later married Cressy in 1983.

Post-political life

Cressy remained with the United Way until 1987, when he left to join the

as vice-president of institutional relations. He has since held similar positions with

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU or Toronto Met) is a public research university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, although it also operates facilities elsewhere in Tor ...

and

George Brown College George Brown College is a public, fully accredited college of applied arts and technology with three campuses in downtown Toronto (Ontario, Canada). Like many other colleges in Ontario, GBC was chartered in 1966 by the government of Ontario and ...

, and has worked on international development projects in

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. His son

Joe Cressy Joseph Cressy (born July 10, 1984) is a former Canadian politician and activist who served on the Toronto City Council from 2014 to 2022. Cressy represented Ward 10 Spadina—Fort York, and was the chair of the Toronto Board of Health. He resign ...

was elected to Toronto City Council in the 2014 municipal election. Gordon Cressy served on mayor-elect

John Tory John Howard Tory (born May 28, 1954) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 65th and current mayor of Toronto since 2014. After a career as a lawyer, political strategist and businessman, Tory ran as a mayoral candidate in the 200 ...

's transition team following the 2014 election.

Honours

In 2016, he was made a member of the

Order of Ontario The Order of Ontario () is the most prestigious official Award, honour in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the A ...

. In 1994, the University of Toronto Alumni Association established the Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Awards in his honour "to recognize students who have made outstanding extra-curricular contributions to their college, faculty or school, or to the university as a whole." Retrieved 21 August 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cressy, Joe 1944 births Living people Ontario New Democratic Party candidates in Ontario provincial elections Toronto city councillors Toronto District School Board trustees University of Toronto alumni Canadian social workers Metropolitan Toronto councillors Members of the Order of Ontario