Michael Gravelle (born January 23, 1949) is a

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, ...

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 Liberal 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 Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Member of Provincial ...

who represented the riding of

Thunder Bay—Superior North Thunder Bay—Superior North (french: Thunder Bay—Supérieur-Nord; formerly known as Thunder Bay—Nipigon) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1976. It is i ...

from

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

to 2022 (known as Port Arthur from 1995 to 1999). He served as a member of cabinet during the Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne governments.

Background

Gravelle was born in Port Arthur, which is now a part of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its populati ...

, the son of Edmund Gravelle and Jan Shepherd. He was educated at the

Port Arthur Collegiate Institute Port Arthur Collegiate Institute was a collegiate institute operated by the Lakehead District School Board in Thunder Bay, Ontario from 1910 to 2007. The building was designated a historic building in 1984 and is located at the west end of Wav ...

and

Lakehead University Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, gradua ...

, receiving a degree from the latter institution 1968. He was an assistant to Liberal politicians Robert Andras, Stuart Smith and

Joe Comuzzi Joseph Robert Comuzzi, (April 5, 1933 – December 31, 2021) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Paul Martin. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1988 to 2008, representing Thunde ...

. He also worked as a publicist for the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the governmen ...

, and was a founder of the ''North of Superior Film Association''.

Politics

Gravelle was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1995 provincial election, defeating incumbent New Democrat Shelley Wark-Martyn by almost 7,000 votes in the riding of Port Arthur. The election was won by 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 ...

, and Gravelle joined 29 other Liberals in the opposition benches. He supported

Dwight Duncan Dwight Duncan (born 3 January 1959) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2013 who represented ridings of Windsor—Walkerville, Windsor—St. Clair and Windso ...

for the party leadership in 1996. Gravelle was easily re-elected for the new riding of Thunder Bay—Superior North in the 1999 provincial election. In the provincial election of 2003, Gravelle was re-elected with 72.5 per cent of the popular vote, the highest percentage total in the province. He was appointed caucus chair on November 25, 2003. In the 2007 election, he was returned by a much narrower margin, 46.8 to 38.3, against New Democrat candidate Jim Foulds. On October 30, 2007, Gravelle was named Ontario Minister of Northern Development and Mines. In the summer of 2009, Gravelle's ministry was expanded, adding on the responsibility of forestry. In 2011 he was shuffled to the position of

Minister of Natural Resources The minister of natural resources () is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). In addition to NRCan, the minister oversees the federal government's natural resources portfolio ...

. In February 2013, Kathleen Wynne moved him back to the position of Minister of Northern Development and Mines. He was reconfirmed in that role after the 2014 election. He was re-elected in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

, and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wa ...

. In February 2017, Gravelle temporarily stepped aside as minister because of his battle with depression; his duties were taken up by fellow cabinet minister

Bill Mauro William Joseph Mauro (born ) is a Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as the mayor of Thunder Bay, Ontario from 2018 to 2022. He was previously a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2018, repr ...

. The Liberals were heavily defeated at the 2018 provincial election, and Gravelle was left as the only Liberal MPP in

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

. In 2020, Gravelle announced that he would be seeking re-election, however, in April 2022 he announced that his previous cancer had returned, and later that month said that he was not able to run for re-election.

Cabinet positions

Electoral record

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gravelle, Michael 1949 births 21st-century Canadian politicians Franco-Ontarian people Lakehead University alumni Living people Members of the Executive Council of Ontario Ontario Liberal Party MPPs Politicians from Thunder Bay