Michael Gravelle (born January 23, 1949) is a
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
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
Liberal member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Member of Provincial ...
who represented the riding of
Thunder Bay—Superior North
Thunder Bay—Superior North (french: Thunder Bay—Supérieur-Nord; formerly known as Thunder Bay—Nipigon) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada
The House of Comm ...
from
1995 to 2022 (known as
Port Arthur from 1995 to 1999). He served as a member of cabinet during the
Dalton McGuinty and
Kathleen Wynne governments.
Background
Gravelle was born in
Port Arthur, which is now a part of
Thunder Bay, the son of Edmund Gravelle and Jan Shepherd.
He was educated at the
Port Arthur Collegiate Institute and
Lakehead University, receiving a degree from the latter institution 1968. He was an assistant to Liberal politicians
Robert Andras,
Stuart Smith and
Joe Comuzzi
Joseph Robert Comuzzi, (April 5, 1933 – December 31, 2021) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Paul Martin. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1988 to 2008, representing Thun ...
. He also worked as a publicist for the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governme ...
, and was a founder of the ''North of Superior Film Association''.
Politics
Gravelle was elected to the Ontario legislature in the
1995 provincial election, defeating incumbent
New Democrat Shelley Wark-Martyn by almost 7,000 votes in the riding of
Port Arthur.
The election was won by the
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canad ...
, and Gravelle joined 29 other Liberals in the opposition benches. He supported
Dwight Duncan for the party leadership in 1996.
Gravelle was easily re-elected for the new riding of Thunder Bay—Superior North in the
1999 provincial election.
In the
provincial election of 2003, Gravelle was re-elected with 72.5 per cent of the popular vote, the highest percentage total in the province.
He was appointed caucus chair on November 25, 2003. In the
2007 election, he was returned by a much narrower margin, 46.8 to 38.3, against New Democrat candidate Jim Foulds.
On October 30, 2007, Gravelle was named Ontario
Minister of Northern Development and Mines.
In the summer of 2009, Gravelle's ministry was expanded, adding on the responsibility of forestry. In 2011 he was shuffled to the position of
Minister of Natural Resources
The minister of natural resources () is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).
In addition to NRCan, the minister oversees the federal government's natural resources portfoli ...
. In February 2013,
Kathleen Wynne moved him back to the position of Minister of Northern Development and Mines.
He was reconfirmed in that role after the 2014 election.
He was re-elected in
2011,
and
2014.
In February 2017, Gravelle temporarily stepped aside as minister because of his battle with
depression; his duties were taken up by fellow cabinet minister
Bill Mauro.
The Liberals were heavily defeated at the
2018 provincial election, and Gravelle was left as the only Liberal MPP in
Northern Ontario.
In 2020, Gravelle announced that he would be seeking re-election, however, in April 2022 he announced that his previous cancer had returned, and later that month said that he was not able to run for re-election.
Cabinet positions
Electoral record
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gravelle, Michael
1949 births
21st-century Canadian politicians
Franco-Ontarian people
Lakehead University alumni
Living people
Members of the Executive Council of Ontario
Ontario Liberal Party MPPs
Politicians from Thunder Bay