Tony Ruprecht
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Tony Ruprecht (born December 12, 1942 in Konstantinow, Poland) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 1981, and currently represents the riding of Davenport for the Liberal Party.
Ruprecht moved to Canada with his parents in 1949 after attending school in Germany. He was educated at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario (receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969), Wichita State University and Miami University, doing Ph.D. work at the latter institution from 1971 to 1973. He later worked as an Assistant Professor at Nebraska West University, and has taught Political Science at York University, Carleton University and Laurentian University. As a result of his early training, he often makes reference to figures such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his parliamentary speeches. He has authored two books: The Graduate School Game (1976) and Toronto's Many Faces (1990), the latter being an overview of Toronto's multicultural communities. Ruprecht is also a member of the Knights of Malta.
Ruprecht began his political career at the municipal level. He is a past chair and advisor to the Parkdale Property Tax Reform Committee, and was a senior alderman representing Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood from 1978 to 1981.
Ruprecht was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1981 provincial election, defeating New Democrat Jan Dukszta by nearly 1000 votes in the riding of Parkdale. Ruprecht was re-elected by a much greater margin in the 1985 election.
The Liberals formed government after the election, and on June 26, 1985 Ruprecht was appointed as a minister without portfolio responsible for Disabled Persons and Multiculturalism. He was re-elected by a landslide the 1987 election, but was subsequently dropped from cabinet.
The Liberals were upset by the NDP in the 1990 provincial election. Ruprecht managed to retain Parkdale by 523 votes over NDP candidate Sheena Weir, even though most surrounding ridings were won by the NDP. He was re-elected by a greater margin in the 1995 election, as the NDP lost much of its support base in the province. The Progressive Conservatives won the provincial election, and Ruprecht remained in opposition.
In 1996, Ruprecht was the only Liberal MPP outside of Ottawa to support Dalton McGuinty's bid for party leader prior to the actual leadership convention. McGuinty was chosen leader after five ballots, though Ruprecht was not promoted within caucus.
He initially planned to run in the redistributed riding of Parkdale--High Park in the 1999 election, but stood aside for star candidate Gerard Kennedy. He instead ran against NDP incumbent Tony Silipo in the neighbouring riding of Davenport, after defeating human-rights lawyer Rocco Galati for the Liberal nomination.
Many expected that the battle between Silipo and Ruprecht would be close, but it was not: Ruprecht won by 4,932 votes, 18% of the voters. The Progressive Conservatives (who have a very limited support base in Davenport) again won the provincial election, and Ruprecht remained in opposition.
Ruprecht was elected for a seventh time in the 2003 election, defeating NDP candidate Jordan Berger by over 8,000 votes. The Liberals won a majority government in this election, and it was initially rumoured that Ruprecht would be re-appointed to cabinet as reward for having endorsed McGuinty. This did not occur; in fact, he was not even given a parliamentary assistant's position.
Tony Ruprecht is an enigma for those who follow Ontario politics. He makes very few speeches in the legislature, and is not well respected outside of his constituency -- or, indeed, among some members of his own party. He is regarded by many as an eccentric social conservative, philosophically out of step with the mainstream of the Ontario Liberal Party. Most Toronto newspapers strongly supported McGuinty's decision to keep him out of cabinet. Nonetheless, he has developed a powerful electoral machine in his constituency, and has survived numerous challenges from NDP candidates. Ruprecht's unexpectedly strong victory over Tony Silipo in 1999 revealed him as an extremely skilled campaigner.
