Paul Ferreira (born in 1973) is 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
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 ...
and one of the first
openly gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
politicians elected to provincial office in Canada. He also has the distinction of being the very first Azorean-Canadian MPP.
He was elected to the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the
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 ...
(NDP) in the
February 8, 2007 York South–Weston by-election, but was narrowly defeated in the
2007 general election. He subsequently served as chief of staff to party leader
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 ...
until Hampton's retirement from that position in 2009. He later worked as a special assistant to leader
Andrea Horwath
Andrea Horwath (; born October 24, 1962) is a Canadian politician who has been the 58th mayor of Hamilton since 2022. Horwath previously served as the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Hamilton Centre from 2004 to 2022, as leader of t ...
. On Feb. 8, 2011, Ferreira was acclaimed as the Ontario NDP's candidate in York South-Weston in the 2011 provincial election.
Early life and education
Paul Ferreira was born in the
Azores
)
, motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace")
, anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores")
, image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg
, map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union
, map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
. Along with his family, he immigrated to Canada in 1979. They settled in
Brampton, Ontario
Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a lower-tier municipality within Peel Region. The city has a population of 656,480 as of the 2021 Census, making it th ...
.
He attended primary and
secondary schools in the Brampton area and went on to study and graduate from
Ottawa's
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 Wo ...
.
Ferreira is an honours graduate of Carleton University's School of Journalism, where he received awards for academic excellence and community involvement. He speaks
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
,
French and
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
.
Involvement with the NDP
Ferreira's parents—Gilberto and Filomena—were active trade unionists, and he followed their example by becoming a United Food and Commercial Workers union steward at a local drugstore while still in high school.
His union experience attracted him to the NDP.
Since 1990, Ferreira has held numerous positions in the NDP. He was Vice President of Outreach for the
New Democratic Youth of Canada from 1997 to 1999, he served on the Ontario NDP's executive from 2002 to 2004 and he was
co-chair
The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...
of the party's
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
Committee for a number of years. He has also been active with numerous community groups. Ferreira left the NDP in 2016 stating that the party had become "fundamentally dishonest" and that "the party has "''lost its way''" by erecting "''reactionary''" roadblocks against highway tolls."
Professional life
Professionally, Ferreira served as the manager of member relations with the Canadian Society for Training and Development. He also co-edited the society's national magazine, the ''Canadian Learning Journal''. From 2001 to 2004, Ferreira was part of the management team at one of Canada's largest business intelligence firms. Previously, he was North American manager of public relations for a British-based multinational. He also spent two years as manager of communications and media relations for the North American Broadcasters Association.
Political life
First election, 1997
Ferreira got his start as a political activist in 1990 when he joined the
New Democratic Party (NDP). After completing a journalism degree at
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 Wo ...
in Ottawa, Ferreira returned to Brampton and was the federal NDP candidate in the riding of
Brampton Centre
Brampton Centre (french: Brampton-Centre) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that is represented in the House of Commons of Canada. This riding was created in 1996 from parts of Brampton riding and in 2013, Elections Canada ...
in the
1997 election. He finished fourth in the race.
York South–Weston federal election 2004
In the spring of
2004, Paul Ferreira became the NDP's federal candidate in the west-end Toronto riding of
York South—Weston. His main opponent was the
incumbent
The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...
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 ...
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) and former
Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, which ...
chair
Alan Tonks
Alan Tonks (born April 2, 1943) is a former Canadian politician. He was the Liberal MP for the federal riding of York South—Weston in Toronto from 2000 to 2011, and was the final Metro Toronto Chairman before the amalgamation of Metro Toront ...
. The main issues in the election, and these were not limited to just York South–Weston, included anger over the governing Liberal party's
Sponsorship scandal
The sponsorship scandal, AdScam or Sponsorgate, was a scandal in Canada that came as a result of a federal government " sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006.
...
;
Health care; and the first budget by the
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr. (born July 19, 1955) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 24th premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013. He was the first Liberal leader to win two majority governments since Mitchell Hepburn nea ...
provincial Liberal government, which included the controversial "Ontario Health Premiums" tax.
Despite the many setbacks that confronted the main Liberal campaign,
Tonks won the election.
Ferreira placed a respectable second. His campaign revived the NDP in York South–Weston and significantly increased the party's share of the vote in the riding to more than 21% (Tom Parkin, the NDP candidate in the
2000 election, received only 3.7% of the vote).
York South–Weston federal election 2006
Subsequently, he ran again for the same federal office in the
2006 election. The election results were basically a repeat of the previous election, with Tonks finishing first and Ferreira in second place.
Toronto municipal election, 2006
He was also a candidate for
Toronto City Council
Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The current term began on November 15, 2022.
Structure
The c ...
in the
2006 Toronto municipal election
The 2006 Toronto municipal election took place on 13 November 2006 to elect a mayor and 44 city councillors in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In addition, school trustees were elected to the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District ...
, finishing second in Ward 11.
Ward 11 York South—Weston
Ontario provincial by-election, 2007
York-South Weston riding map fro
Elections Ontario
file:D.c.macdonald and ferreira.bw.jpg, Paul Ferreira receiving congratulations from former NDP leader Donald C. Macdonald on Election Night.
file:Ferreira_victory_speech.jpg, Paul Ferreira speaking at his victory celebration, February 8, 2007
File:Ferreira hampton.jpg, Former NDP Leader 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 ...
and Paul Ferreira accepting victory in the York south–Weston by-election
File:Donald c. macdonald speaking.jpg, Former NDP Leader Donald C. MacDonald passing-on the symbolic generational torch.
The provincial riding of
York South—Weston, which corresponds closely to the boundaries of the federal riding, at the time of the by-election was considered a
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 ...
stronghold
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere' ...
. Historically, the
York South
York South was an electoral district (or "riding") in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1904 to 1979.
The riding is notable for the 1942 federal by-election in which newly elected Conservative leader Ar ...
part of the riding had been a
CCF/NDP stronghold from the mid-1950s starting with
Donald C. MacDonald to the mid-1990s with
Bob Rae. After Rae resigned from the Legislature, the only NDP candidate that even came close to a victory was
David Miller (currently Toronto's mayor, at the time a Metro councillor for Ward One), in the 1996 by-election.
The February 2007 by-election was necessitated by the resignation of former
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 ...
Member of Provincial Parliament Joe Cordiano
Joseph Cordiano (born October 30, 1957) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 2006 who represented the riding of Downsview. He served as a cabinet minister in the g ...
, who resigned his seat in the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the fall of 2006 to spend more time with his family.
At the January 13, 2007 York South–Weston NDP nomination meeting,Ferreira successfully ran against Brian Donlevy to be the
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 the
February 8, 2007 by-election. As the party's candidate, he campaigned on the following issues: the $10 hourly minimum wage;
[ ] the proposed
Blue22 train to Toronto Pearson Airport;
the recent wage increases to members of the Ontario Legislature.
February 8, 2007 was a very cold day, and that may have been a contributing factor in the low voter turnout. When the polling stations closed at 8:00 p.m., it took two hours to count the ballots and declare Ferreira the winner. At his victory party,
Donald C. MacDonald (the former Ontario CCF/NDP leader from the 1953 to 1970 and local area MPP for almost thirty years), joined Ferreira onstage in a symbolic passing of the generational torch ceremony.
[ ] One of the coincidences of this NDP election victory was, that it came almost exactly 65 years to the day, when the CCF first won York South, in the February 9, 1942 by-election. In that election
Joseph Noseworthy won a surprise victory, similar to Ferreira's.
On February 19, 2007, Paul Ferreira was sworn in as the tenth member of the NDP caucus in the Ontario Legislature.
In the NDP caucus, Ferreira held the critic portfolios for housing, citizenship and immigration.
Ontario general election, 2007
York South—Weston is not normally a reliable NDP seat, and the by-election had been marked by low turnout — as a result, going into the general election Ferreira was considered the most vulnerable NDP incumbent.
Ferreira again faced Laura Albanese, the same Liberal candidate as in the by-election. On election night, Albanese defeated Ferreira by a margin of less than 500 votes.
Ontario general election, 2011
On Feb. 8, 2011—on the fourth anniversary of his by-election victory—Ferreira was acclaimed as the Ontario NDP candidate in York South—Weston for the
2011 election. He was once again defeated by Albanese.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferreira, Paul
1973 births
Canadian LGBT people in provincial and territorial legislatures
Canadian people of Azorean descent
Carleton University alumni
Gay politicians
Living people
New Democratic Party candidates for the Canadian House of Commons
Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs
Politicians from Toronto
Portuguese emigrants to Canada
21st-century Canadian politicians
21st-century Canadian LGBT people
Canadian gay men