Ian Deans (August 16, 1937 – May 3, 2016) was a politician in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada. He was a
New Democratic member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1979 and was a member of the
House of Commons of Canada from 1980 to 1986.
Background
Deans was born in
Kilmarnock,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. He moved to Canada as a youth and found work as a
firefighter. He met his wife,
Diane, when she was a staffer on Parliament Hill. He helped her launch her own political career as an Ottawa-area city councillor. The couple were married for 22 years before divorcing. Afterwards, Deans moved back to the Hamilton area.
[
Deans died in Hamilton, Ontario on May 3, 2016, at the age of 78.]
Politics
Provincial
He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a New Democratic Member in the 1967 provincial election representing the Hamilton area riding of Wentworth Wentworth may refer to:
People
* Wentworth (surname)
* Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth (1873–1957), Lady Wentworth, notable Arabian horse breeder
* S. Wentworth Horton (1885–1960), New York state senator
* Wentworth Miller (born 1 ...
.
In 1970, he favoured a resolution that would force The Waffle, a radical left-wing group within the party, to be expelled. Deans objected to the organization because it recruited its own members, raised its own funds, and created its own policy, called 'The Manifesto'. He said, "You then become a political organization unto yourself." The resolution passed at an NDP convention in 1972. In 1970, Deans broke with most of his colleagues by expressing support for Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's implementation of the War Measures Act during the FLQ Crisis
The October Crisis (french: Crise d'Octobre) refers to a chain of events that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cr ...
.
In 1978, he ran in the Ontario NDP leadership convention to succeed Stephen Lewis. Deans' earlier support for the War Measures Act became a point of contention and he recanted his position saying he was wrong and had regretted it ever since. Initially projected to be the front runner, he lost by less than 200 votes to Michael Cassidy. Deans resigned from the legislature the next year.
Federal
Deans moved to federal politics and won a seat in the House of Commons of Canada during the 1980 federal election representing Hamilton Mountain.
He served as House Leader
{{Politics of Canada
In Canada, each political party with representation in the House of Commons has a House Leader who is a front bench Member of Parliament (MP) and an expert in parliamentary procedure. The same representation is found in the pr ...
for the New Democratic Party during the illness of Stanley Knowles
Stanley Howard Knowles (June 18, 1908 – June 9, 1997) was a Canadian parliamentarian. Knowles represented the riding of Winnipeg North Centre from 1942 to 1958 on behalf of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and again from 1 ...
, and became official House Leader following the 1984 federal election.
In the fall of 1986, he surprised colleagues by resigning from parliament to accept an appointment by Progressive Conservative Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Brian Mulroney as head of the Public Service Staff Relations Board, a position Deans went on to hold for 10 years.[
In 2007, Deans returned to politics and was acclaimed as the federal NDP's candidate in Brant. However, due to the onset of ]Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
, he dropped out of the race.
Municipal
In 2010, Deans said in an interview that he might run in the Hamilton Municipal Election in 2010 if his Parkinson's hasn't progressed any farther. On September 2, 2010, he announced he would be running for mayor of Hamilton in the 2010 Municipal Election. He was quoted as saying, "The current city council 'a laughing stock' that has made it impossible to sell anything to do with Hamilton." At the last minute, he changed his mind, withdrew from the Mayoral race and ran instead for the position of Ward 2 (Downtown) Councillor in a field of 20 candidates after the incumbent councillor, Bob Bratina
Robert Bratina (born 1944) is a Canadian politician and former broadcaster who was the 56th mayor of Hamilton from 2010 to 2014. Previously, he sat on the Hamilton City Council from 2004 until 2010. He went on to be the Liberal member of Par ...
, decided to run for Mayor. Deans finished in eighth place with 231 votes (3%).
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deans, Ian
1937 births
2016 deaths
Canadian firefighters
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
Members of the United Church of Canada
New Democratic Party MPs
Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs
Politicians from Hamilton, Ontario
People from Kilmarnock
Scottish emigrants to Canada