Michael James Breaugh (September 13, 1942 – November 22, 2019) was a

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 served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1975 to 1990, and in the House of Commons of Canada from 1990 to 1993.

Background

Breaugh was one of four sons of Thomas Breaugh and Marion Rush; his brothers were Harold, Patrick, and Tom. He was educated at

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Teachers' College, Queen's University, and 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 ...

. A teacher by training, he served on the executive of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association.

Politics

He was first elected to public office in the 1975 Ontario election. A

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 cultural ...

, he won an easy victory in the working-class riding of Oshawa, while the NDP became the principal legislative opposition to the long-established Progressive Conservative government. He was re-elected in the 1977 election. The NDP had seemed poised for an electoral breakthrough in 1977, but instead fell from second- to third-place status in the legislature. When Stephen Lewis stepped down as Ontario NDP leader in 1978, Breaugh ran to succeed him. He received 499 votes at the 1978 NDP leadership convention, finishing a strong third in a field of three candidates. Most of his supporters went to Michael Cassidy rather than presumed frontrunner

Ian Deans Ian Deans (August 16, 1937 – May 3, 2016) was a politician in Ontario, 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. Ba ...

on the second ballot, giving Cassidy a narrow victory. Breaugh was re-elected in the 1981 election, though by a narrower margin than before. Breaugh had a poor relationship with Bob Rae, who succeeded Cassidy as party leader in 1982. The NDP experienced a modest recovery under Rae in the 1985 provincial election, and Breaugh was again re-elected by a significant margin in Oshawa. In the 1987 election, he defeated

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 ...

candidate Cathy O'Flynn by the reduced margin of 2,916 votes as the Liberals won a landslide provincial majority. Breaugh often clashed with Rae in the 1980s, criticising his leadership. In 1990, he left Queen's Park and ran for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada, in a

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 ...

called in the federal Oshawa riding to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of former federal NDP leader

Ed Broadbent John Edward "Ed" Broadbent (born March 21, 1936) is a Canadian social-democratic politician, political scientist, and chair of the Broadbent Institute, a policy thinktank. He was leader of the New Democratic Party from 1975 to 1989. In the 200 ...

. Breaugh again defeated O'Flynn, now running for the Liberal Party of Canada, to win the by-election, which was held on August 13, a month before the 1990 Ontario election that brought Rae's NDP to power. Rae's government was largely responsible for Breaugh's defeat at the polls in 1993. The provincial NDP had by this time lost much of its support from organized labour, through austerity legislation known as the '' Social Contract''. This had a detrimental effect on the federal NDP, which lost all ten of its Ontario seats in the 1993 federal election. Breaugh was reduced to a fourth-place finish in Oshawa, where the local branch of the

Canadian Auto Workers The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) was one of Canada's largest and highest profile labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and ...

had previously disaffiliated from the NDP. He supported

Howard Hampton Howard George Hampton (born May 17, 1952) is a politician who was a member of Provincial Parliament for the province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, from 1987 to 1999 in the electoral district of Rainy Ri ...

for leader of the Ontario NDP in 1996. Breaugh died on November 22, 2019.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Breaugh, Michael 1942 births 2019 deaths Canadian Roman Catholics Canadian schoolteachers Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario New Democratic Party MPs Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs Oshawa city councillors People from Kingston, Ontario University of Toronto alumni