Roman Baber (born 1980) is a Russian-Canadian politician who was the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for

York Centre York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a m ...

from 2018 to 2022. Baber was elected as a member of the

Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...

until he was removed by Premier

Doug Ford Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario since June 2018 and leader of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party since March 2018. He ...

, the party leader, in January 2021. He sat as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

until the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly on May 3, 2022. He was a candidate in the 2022 leadership election of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Early life

Baber was born and raised in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. He and his family moved to

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

when he was eight, before emigrating to Canada in 1995, when he was 15. Baber's family settled in Toronto in the Bathurst Street and

Sheppard Avenue Sheppard Avenue is an east–west principal arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street has two distinct branches near its eastern end, with the original route being a collector road leading to Pickering via a turnoff, and the main ro ...

area, an area he represented. He is a lawyer by profession, and attended

William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute , motto_translation = Merit has its own reward , city = Toronto , province = Ontario , postalcode = M3H 5R2 , country = Canada , coordinates = , school ...

and

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

, before earning his law degree at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

Political career

Baber was elected as the MPP for York Centre in the 2018 provincial election.

Autism file and Baber Report

In April 2019, Baber was asked by Premier

to review the government's autism program. Baber's review, later termed the Baber Report, was provided anonymously to ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' after it was shared with the government's Autism Advisory Panel. On July 29, 2019, the Ontario government apologized to the families of

autistic The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

children for the initial plan and acknowledged that the changes to the autism program announced earlier that year were poorly conceived.

Removal from PC Party

He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party caucus until January 15, 2021 when Premier

removed him from caucus over his opposition to the province's

lockdown A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...

and restrictions during the

COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario The COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario is an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in C ...

, with Baber stating in an open letter to Premier Ford, "the lockdown is deadlier than COVID". Baber was Chair of Parliament's Justice Policy Committee until his removal by a Government motion on February 16, 2021. He did not run for re-election in the 2022 Ontario general election.

Federal Conservative leadership candidate

On March 9, 2022, Baber declared his intent to run in the

2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election The 2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election was a leadership election held by the Conservative Party of Canada to elect the successor to Erin O'Toole. He was removed on February 2, 2022, as leader by the party's caucus in the ...

. Baber ran on a platform of restoring Canada's democracy. He inspired by his ejection from Premier Doug Ford's PC caucus, Baber pledged to allow MPs to vote their conscience and express their personal views without fear of repercussions. He pledged to oppose Quebec's Bill 21 and Bill 96, repeal the Trudeau government's carbon tax, end Canada's equalization program, phase out supply management, and more. On September 10, it was announced that

Pierre Poilievre Pierre Marcel Poilievre ( ; born June 3, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the leader of the Official Opposition since 2022. Poilievre has served as a member of Parliament (MP) ...

won the leadership on the first ballot. Baber placed fourth, garnering 5.03% of the points and 5.4% of the votes cast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baber, Roman Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs Independent MPPs in Ontario 21st-century Canadian politicians Politicians from Toronto Living people 1980 births Israeli people of Russian-Jewish descent Soviet emigrants to Israel Soviet emigrants to Canada Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent Israeli emigrants to Canada Jewish Canadian politicians Lawyers in Ontario Politicians affected by a party expulsion process