John Oostrom
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John Martin Oostrom (September 2, 1930 – March 4, 2023) was a Canadian business executive and politician. He was the first Dutch-born Canadian elected to the
House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...
.


Biography

Oostrom was the eldest of thirteen children and immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands with his entire family in 1952. They settled on a farm near
Kemptville, Ontario Kemptville is a community located in the Municipality of North Grenville in Eastern Ontario, Canada in the northernmost part of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville. It is located approximately south of the downtown core of Ottawa and ...
. Oostrom moved to
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
in 1955 to study at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
, and graduated in 1959 with a BA. He subsequently earned a
Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...
degree and entered the business world as a financial analyst. By the late 1970s, he had become an executive with the electronics firm, Philips Canada. Oostrom was a member of
Paul Hellyer Paul Theodore Hellyer (August 6, 1923 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian engineer, politician, writer, and commentator. He was the longest serving member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada at the time of his death. Early life Hellyer w ...
's short-lived Action Canada Party in 1971, and followed Hellyer into the
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC; ) was a Centrism, centre to centre-right List of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada that existed from 1942 to 2003. From Canadian Confederation in 1867 unti ...
when Action Canada dissolved prior to the 1972 federal election. In that election, Oostrom was the Progressive Conservative (PC) candidate in the
working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
Toronto riding of York South. He placed third behind
New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...
leader David Lewis and the Liberal candidate.


Career

In the 1979 federal election, Oostrom ran again in what had become York South—Weston. This time he came in second, only 3,500 votes behind Liberal incumbent Ursula Appolloni. A third attempt by Oostrom in the 1980 election was less successful. He came third with only half as many votes as the Liberal victor. Oostrom was successful in his fourth campaign, in the 1984 federal election when he moved to the more affluent riding of Willowdale in
North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...
. This time, Oostrom won, edging Liberal Member of Parliament
Jim Peterson James Scott Peterson (July 30, 1941 – May 10, 2024) was a Canadian politician. He was a Liberal Party of Canada, Liberal member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1980 to 1984 and again from 1988 to 2007, representing the northern Toron ...
by just over 400 votes. As a Progressive Conservative
backbench In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of t ...
er in the House of Commons of Canada, Oostrom was a
social conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional social structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institu ...
, opposing
abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
and favouring
capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...
and a hard law and order stance. As vice chair of the House of Common's committee responsible for immigration, Oostrom also expressed criticism of what he saw as lax policies towards
refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...
claimants. Oostrom was also a fervent
anti-Communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
and was also involved with the far-right
World Anti-Communist League The World League for Freedom and Democracy (WLFD) is an international non-governmental organization of anti-communist politicians and groups. It was founded in 1954 as the Asian Peoples' Anti-Communist League (APACL) under the initiative of C ...
. In the 1988 federal election, Oostrom again faced Peterson, who beat him by fewer than 2,000 votes. Oostrom returned to the private sector as a consultant before trying to regain his Willowdale seat as a PC Party candidate in the 1993 federal election. He was unsuccessful, garnering only 7,733 votes against Peterson's 28,000 and winning only 700 votes more than the third place Reform Party candidate. Oostrom attempted another comeback in the 2000 federal election, this time in the
suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
an 905 riding of Oak Ridges north of Toronto. Running again as a Progressive Conservative, he came in a poor third. In 2003, Oostrom added his voice to those Tories opposing the Progressive Conservative Party's merger with the
Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 2000 to 2003. The Canadian Alliance was the new name of the ...
.


Death

Oostrom died on March 4, 2023, at the age of 92.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oostrom, John 1930 births 2023 deaths Dutch emigrants to Canada Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario People from Bunnik Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs University of Toronto alumni 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada