Robert Desmond Thornberry (November 8, 1907 – 1969) was a businessperson and politician 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 Ca ...

, Canada. He represented

Hamilton Centre Hamilton Centre (french: Hamilton-Centre) is a federal electoral district in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. History It was created in 2003 from parts of Hamilton East, Hamil ...

in 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 1943 to 1945 and from 1948 to 1951 as a

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialism, democra ...

(CCF) member. The son of William Thornberry and Lydia Hall, both natives of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, he came to Canada in 1921. Thornberry attended technical school in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. In 1931, he married Violet Con. He was employed as the vice-president of a dairy company. Thornberry served on Hamilton city council from 1940 to 1942, prior to being elected to the provincial legislature. In 1951, Thornberry introduced a

private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...

to reduce the maximum work week from 48 hours to 40 hours but the Conservative majority voted to delay discussion on the bill until after the end of the current session of the legislature, in effect killing any further action on the bill.

References

1907 births 1969 deaths Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPPs 20th-century Canadian politicians {{Ontario-MPP-stub