Peter John North (born August 23, 1960) is former

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 ...

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 Ca ...

, Canada. He was a New Democratic 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 Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...

from 1990 to 1999 who represented the southwestern Ontario riding of Elgin. He was a cabinet minister in the government of

Bob Rae Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...

. In 1993 he left the New Democratic Party in an unsuccessful attempt to join the Progressive Conservative Party. For the next seven years he sat as an independent member. He was the first MPP of

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

descent ever elected to Ontario's provincial legislature.

Background

North graduated from high school in 1979 and worked as a building contractor.

Politics

New Democrat

He was elected to the legislature in the 1990 Ontario election as the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Elgin, defeating incumbent

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 ...

Marietta Roberts by over 4,000 votes. As one of the few NDP MPPs to represent a rural constituency in southern Ontario, North was appointed to

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

as Minister of Tourism and Recreation on October 1, 1990. He resigned as tourism minister in November 1992 after allegations he had offered a government job to a woman with whom he was having an unconsummated affair. An investigation by the

Ontario Provincial Police The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) is the provincial police service of Ontario, Canada. Under its provincial mandate, the OPP patrols provincial highways and waterways, protects provincial government buildings and officials, patrols unincorpo ...

found no evidence of wrongdoing, but North was not returned to cabinet by Rae.

Cabinet positions

Independent

North resigned from the NDP in August 1993 and declared his intention to join the Progressive Conservative Party. He did not discuss this with the party in advance, however, and was told that he would have to get the support of the riding association in Elgin before he would be accepted by the party. North then sat as an independent. North was re-elected in the 1995 provincial election. Defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Jim Williams by nearly 2,000 votes, he became the first MPP in the province to be elected as an independent candidate since 1934. He had no formal legislative responsibilities from 1995 to 1997 and made only minor contributions to legislative debate. North did not seek re-election in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, clearing the way for PC incumbent

Bruce Smith Bruce Bernard Smith (born June 18, 1963) is an American former football defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football at Virginia Tech, where he was ...

to run (unsuccessfully) in the redistributed riding of Elgin—Middlesex—London. In July 1999, North was appointed co-ordinator of Community Sport and Recreation Development by the government.

Failed Comeback

North resumed his old career as a contractor based in

Port Stanley, Ontario Port Stanley is a community in the Municipality of Central Elgin, Elgin County in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north shore of Lake Erie at the mouth of Kettle Creek (Ontario), Kettle Creek. In 2016, it had a population of 2,148. History ...

with one failed comeback attempt in 2011 as a PC nomination candidate for Elgin—Middlesex—London, but lost to

Jeff Yurek Jeffrey Thomas Yurek (born 1971) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who represented the riding of Elgin—Middlesex—London. He was an MPP between 2011-2 ...

who went on to become elected.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:North, Peter 1960 births Living people Independent MPPs in Ontario Members of the Executive Council of Ontario Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs People from St. Thomas, Ontario First Nations politicians