Richard Frank Johnston (born August 8, 1946) is a retired
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 ...
provincial politician, educator and administrator.
Background
Johnston was born in
Pembroke,
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 ...
and grew up in
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 ...
. As a young man he was active in the
Anglican church and at one point considered becoming a priest.
In 1964, Johnston enrolled at
Trent University
Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes. being the second person to register at the opening year of the university. He also worked at Trent as an administrator and counsellor. In 1967 he moved to Montreal to write fiction and poetry because as he said, "I couldn't afford Paris."
After that he moved to
Whitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...
where he became a
social worker specializing in the elderly. He was the founding executive director of Community Care in
Durham Region
The Regional Municipality of Durham (), informally referred to as Durham Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. Located east of Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York, Durham forms the east-end of the Greater Tor ...
.
Johnston and his wife operate a
vineyard
A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...
and
winery
A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...
in
Prince Edward County.
Politics
Johnston's first association with politics was in the 1970s when he worked as a campaign organizer for
Stephen Lewis in
Scarborough West. He was the campaign manager for the 1977 election.
When Lewis left politics, Johnston ran to succeed him as the
NDP
NDP may stand for:
Computing
* Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol
* Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP
* Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language
Government
* National ...
Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
West, winning election to the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario in a 1979
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 ...
. Johnston was re-elected three times before he retired in 1990. The only time he faced a serious challenge was in 1981, when he defeated
Progressive Conservative John Adams by 375 votes.
He crusaded for improved benefits to the poor and disabled by attempting to live for a month on a "welfare diet" in 1982, limiting his food budget to that of the average person on
welfare
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
.
Johnston ran in the
1982 NDP leadership convention to succeed
Michael Cassidy. He characterized himself as a 'rank-and-file' candidate who was more in tune with the grassroots of the party in contrast with
Bob Rae who had the support of leaders in the party and the trade union movement. Johnston received support from the left wing of the party including MPPs
Floyd Laughren,
Jim Renwick
Jim Renwick (born 12 February 1952) is a former Scotland international rugby union player. He played at Centre.Bath, p154
Rugby Union career
Amateur career
He played for Hawick Harlequins and then moved to play for Hawick.
Provincial care ...
and
Ross McClellan. Johnston promoted a strong anti-nuclear stand and was proponent of nationalizing key industries such as the banks,
Bell Canada and natural resource companies such as
Inco's mining and smelting operations. On February 7, 1982, Rae won on the first ballot with 64.5% of the vote beating Johnston by 844 votes. Johnston was magnanimous in defeat saying of Rae, "a leader with an unparalleled capacity to turn a phrase and turn on a crowd. I will be proud to serve in the Legislature with Bob Rae as my leader."
In the legislature, Johnston served as chair of the NDP
caucus and chair of the social development committee during the 1985 to 1987
minority legislature in which the NDP held the
balance of power. Johnston, unlike Rae, had originally supported a coalition government with the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
following the
election of 1985.
In 1983, Johnston moved a resolution to declare Ontario a
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s-free zone but it was defeated, a decision that moved him to tears. In 1987 he introduced a
private members 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 ...
on the same issue and it was passed with support of all three parties. Only 2 Liberals and 7 Conservatives opposed it.
He travelled to
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
to help build a school and medical facility. In 1987, he presented a report to the legislature, ''Toward a New Ontario'', which recommended an overhaul of the existing social assistance system.
In 1990, Johnston decided to retire from politics. He said that after suffering a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
in 1984 he wanted to pursue a career that was easier on his health.
After politics
Following his departure from politics, Johnston returned to academia serving as chair of the Ontario Council of Regents for the
Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology from 1991 to 1995. He then served as president of the
First Nations Technical Institute
FNTI (formerly known as First Nations Technical Institute) is an Indigenous-owned and -governed post-secondary institute located in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario. The institute puts on programming rooted in Indigegogy and Indigenous way ...
on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory from 1995 until 1998 as well as a member of
Trent University
Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes. 's board of directors. Johnston served as president of
Centennial College in
Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to:
People
* Scarborough (surname)
* Earl of Scarbrough
Places Australia
* Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth
* Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong
* Scarborough, Queensland, su ...
from 1998 until 2004.
In 1995 Johnston and his spouse purchased a farm 5 km West of Wellington in Prince Edward County, Ontario. They started By Chadsey's Cairns,
one of the original wineries founded in "The County" in the 1990s, and continue to run the operation to this day.
In 2006, he was appointed to the board of trustees for
OPSEU's pension trust.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Richard
1946 births
Canadian socialists
Living people
Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs
People from Pembroke, Ontario
Trent University alumni
Wine merchants