Mark Adler (born March 17, 1962) 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. He was a
Conservative member of 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 2011 to 2015. He represented the
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
riding of
York Centre.
Background
Adler attended
, graduating in 1981. He graduated from the
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 ...
in 1984 and
Carleton University
Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...
Graduate School of Public Administration in Ottawa. He worked for
Canadian Institute of International Affairs and was a trade representative in the Government of Ontario's office in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
. In 2003 he founded and chaired the
Economic Club of Toronto.
Politics
Adler was elected to the Canadian Parliament in the
2011 federal election, when he defeated the
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 ...
incumbent
Ken Dryden
Kenneth Wayne Dryden (born August 8, 1947) is a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author, and former National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was a Liber ...
.
In January 2014, he travelled with
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 is not ...
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...
on a trip to
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. During a visit to the
wailing wall, he urged an aide to the prime minister to allow him to get a photograph with Harper. He said, "It's the re-election! This is the million-dollar shot." The aide declined his request.
Adler was criticized during the
2015 federal election campaign for putting "son of a
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
survivor" on an election poster.
Adler has also claimed in biographical and campaign materials to be the first child of
Holocaust survivors
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...
elected to the House of Commons. Former MP
Raymonde Folco, who sat in the House of Commons as a Liberal from 1997 to 2011 and is also a child of survivors, challenged this claim.
The claim was removed from Adler's campaign page in August 2015. Adler's campaign manager Georgeanne Burke said the claim was "an honest mistake," since Folco "never spoke publicly about her background."
Asked about Adler's behaviour, Folco told the ''
Canadian Jewish News
The Canadian Jewish News is a non-profit, national, English-language digital-first media organization that serves Canada‘s Jewish community. A national edition of the newspaper was published for 60 years in Toronto. A weekly Montreal edition in ...
'' that she found it "disgusting" for Adler "to use the Holocaust in this way, for personal ends."
In the 2015 federal election, Adler did not succeed in his bid for re-election, with Liberal candidate
Michael Levitt
Michael Levitt, ( he, מיכאל לויט; born 9 May 1947) is a South African-born biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at Stanford University, a position he has held since 1987. Levitt received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistr ...
winning.
Electoral record
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Mark
1963 births
21st-century Canadian politicians
Businesspeople from Toronto
Carleton University alumni
Conservative Party of Canada MPs
Jewish Canadian politicians
Living people
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
Politicians from Toronto
University of Toronto alumni