Tom Froese (born November 29, 1952) is a former 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 served as a Progressive Conservative 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 1995 to 1999 who represented the riding of

St. Catharines—Brock St. Catharines—Brock was a provincial electoral division in Ontario, Canada containing the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake as well as the southern portion of the city of St. Catharines. It was created prior to the 1975 provincial election, and w ...

Background

Froese was born in

Niagara-on-the-Lake Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the Niagara Region of On ...

, where his father Jake Froese would later serve as the town's mayor and as a federal

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 of ...

. He worked at Niagara Credit Union from 1971 to 1995, and served in several other local organizations. In 1991, he was named as Niagara-on-the-Lake citizen of the year.

Politics

Froese was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1995 provincial election, defeating

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 ...

Gail Richardson and

New Democrat New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturall ...

incumbent Christel Haeck by a plurality of about 4,500 votes in the riding of

. He served as a backbench supporter of

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...

's government for the next four years. In 1996, the Harris government reduced the number of provincial ridings from 130 to 103. This change meant that a number of sitting MPPs had to compete against one another for re-election in the 1999 campaign. Froese ran against veteran Liberal MPP Jim Bradley in the new riding of St. Catharines, and lost by over 7,000 votes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Froese, Tom 1952 births Living people People from Niagara-on-the-Lake Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs