Bernard Grandmaître
Ben Grandmaître | |
|---|---|
| Ontario MPP | |
| In office 1984–1999 | |
| Preceded by | Albert Roy |
| Succeeded by | Jim Brownell |
| Constituency | Ottawa East |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 24, 1933 Eastview, Ontario, Canada |
| Political party | Liberal |
Bernard "Ben" C. Grandmaître CM, (born June 24, 1933) is a former politician from Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1984 to 1999 who represented the riding of Ottawa East. He served as a cabinet minister in the government of David Peterson.
Background[edit]
Grandmaître was born in Eastview, Ontario, and educated at Ottawa schools. He owned a small business in Vanier, Ontario for thirteen years. He was named a life member of the Centre francophone de Vanier, and was active in the Knights of Columbus.
Politics[edit]
Grandmaître was an alderman on the Vanier city council from 1969 to 1974, and served as its mayor from 1974 to 1980 and from 1982 to 1984.[1]
He ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1981 provincial election, but lost to Bob MacQuarrie in the riding of Carleton East (future NDP cabinet minister Evelyn Gigantes finished third).[2]
In government[edit]
On December 13, 1984, he was elected in a by-election to succeed retiring MPP Albert Roy in the riding of Ottawa East.[1] This riding is one of the safest Liberal seats in the province, and Grandmaitre was returned without difficulty in the 1985 provincial election.[3]
The Liberals formed a minority government after this election, and Grandmaître was appointed as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Minister responsible for Francophone Affairs.[4] In the latter capacity, he played a major role in passing the province's French Language Services Act in 1986.
The Liberals won a landslide majority in the 1987 election, and Grandmaître defeated his nearest opponent by almost 15,000 votes.[5] He appointed as Minister of Revenue on September 29, 1987, while retaining responsibility for Francophone Affairs.[6] His term in cabinet ended on August 2, 1989.[7]
Cabinet positions[edit]
In opposition[edit]
The Liberals were defeated by the NDP in the 1990 election, although Grandmaître again retained his seat without difficulty.[8] He was re-elected again in the 1995 election,[9] and retired in 1999. He endorsed Dalton McGuinty's bid to lead the Ontario Liberal Party in 1996.[10]
Electoral record[edit]
| 1995 Ontario general election: Ottawa East | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Bernard Grandmaître | 14,436 | 56.94 | −5.47 | $ 19,824.52 | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Cynthia Bled | 5,368 | 21.17 | +12.77 | 28,483.15 | |||
| New Democratic | David Dyment | 4,818 | 19.00 | −4.27 | 17,425.03 | |||
| Green | Larry Tyldsley | 335 | 1.32 | −1.44 | 524.72 | |||
| Natural Law | Robert Mayer | 261 | 1.03 | 0.00 | ||||
| Independent | Steven White | 136 | 0.54 | 0.00 | ||||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 25,354 | 98.71 | $ 45,818.00 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 331 | 1.29 | +0.07 | |||||
| Turnout | 25,685 | 53.21 | -2.02 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 48,272 | |||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | -9.12 | ||||||
Source(s)
"General Election of June 8 1995 – Summary of Valid Ballots by Candidate". Retrieved May 31, 2014. "General Election of June 8 1995 – Statistical Summary". Elections Ontario. "1995 Details of Candidate Income and Expenses" (3.16MB). & "1995 Summary of Income and Campaign Expenses" ( .svg){kind=icon} Word'95 .doc files (146KB)). | ||||||||
| 1990 Ontario general election: Ottawa East | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Bernard Grandmaître | 16,363 | 62.41 | −11.85 | ||||
| New Democratic | Lori Lucier | 6,103 | 23.28 | +7.07 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Diana Morin | 2,203 | 8.40 | −1.13 | ||||
| Family Coalition | Richard Hudon | 826 | 3.15 | |||||
| Green | Frank de Jong | 723 | 2.76 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 26,218 | 98.78 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 324 | 1.22 | ||||||
| Turnout | 26,542 | 55.23 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 48,055 | |||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | -9.46 | ||||||
| 1987 Ontario general election: Ottawa East | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Bernard Grandmaître | 18,959 | 74.26 | +5.86 | ||||
| New Democratic | Alex Connelly | 4,137 | 16.20 | −2.40 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Corinne Price | 2,435 | 9.54 | −1.03 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 25,531 | 100.0 | +19.60 | |||||
| 1985 Ontario general election: Ottawa East | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Bernard Grandmaître | 14,601 | 68.40 | +0.03 | ||||
| New Democratic | Kathryn Barnard | 3,971 | 18.60 | +5.1 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Paul St. Georges | 2,257 | 10.57 | −6.48 | ||||
| Independent | Serge Girard | 518 | 2.43 | +1.35 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 21,347 | 100.0 | +88.23 | |||||
| Ontario provincial by-election, December 13, 1984: Ottawa East Resignation of Albert J. Roy | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Bernard Grandmaître | 7,754 | 68.37 | −0.85 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Richard Boudreau | 1,934 | 17.05 | −3.58 | ||||
| New Democratic | Jean Gilbert | 1,531 | 13.50 | +4.22 | ||||
| Independent | Serge Girard | 122 | 1.08 | +0.21 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 11,341 | 100.0 | −44.74 | |||||
Honours and awards[edit]
In 2013 he was made a member of the Order of Canada. His citation reads, "for fostering the vitality and growth of Ontario's francophone community."[11] There is an arena named after him in Ottawa and a French Catholic school in the Riverside South neighbourhood of Ottawa that bears his name.
References[edit]
- ^ a b Stephens, Robert; Cruickshank, John (December 14, 1984). "Liberals lose ground in Ontario by-elections". The Globe and Mail. p. 1.
- ^ Canadian Press (1981-03-20). "Election results for Metro Toronto ridings". The Windsor Star. Windsor, Ontario. p. 22. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Results of vote in Ontario election". The Globe and Mail. May 3, 1985. p. 13.
- ^ "Liberals pledge reform as they take over in Ontario". The Gazette. Montreal, Que. June 27, 1985. p. B1.
- ^ "Results from individual ridings". The Windsor Star. September 11, 1987. p. F2.
- ^ "Wrye gets new cabinet job". The Windsor Star. September 29, 1987. p. A1.
- ^ Allen, Gene (August 3, 1989). "Veterans bear load as 8 ministers cut in Peterson shuffle". The Globe and Mail. p. A1.
- ^ "Ontario election: Riding-by-riding voting results". The Globe and Mail. September 7, 1990. p. A12.
- ^ "Summary of Valid Ballots by Candidate". Elections Ontario. June 8, 1995. Archived from the original on March 28, 2014. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
- ^ "Canada NewsWire". August 19, 1996.
- ^ Hudes, Sammy (December 31, 2013). "7 Ottawans join Order of Canada; Three Officers named all medical researchers". The Ottawa Citizen. p. C4.
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