Michael James Breaugh (September 13, 1942 – November 22, 2019) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician. He served in the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

from 1975 to 1990, and in 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 ...

from a 1990 by-election until 1993.

Background

Breaugh was one of four sons of Thomas Breaugh and Marion Rush; his brothers were Harold, Patrick, and Tom. He was educated at

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

Teachers' College, Queen's University, and 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 ...

. A teacher by training, he served as an executive of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association.

Politics

He was first elected to public office in the 1975 Ontario election. A

New Democrat New Democrats may refer to: * New Democratic Party, a social democratic party in Canada * New Democrats (United States), the ideological centrist faction of the Democratic Party ** New Democrat Coalition, the related caucus in the United States H ...

, he won an easy victory in the working-class riding of

Oshawa Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the Greater Toronto Area and of the Golden Horseshoe. It ...

, while the NDP became the principal legislative opposition to the long-established Progressive Conservative government. He was re-elected in the 1977 election. The NDP had seemed poised for an electoral breakthrough in 1977, but instead fell from second to third-place status in the legislature. When

Stephen Lewis Stephen Henry Lewis (born November 11, 1937) is a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster, and diplomat. He was the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s and was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democr ...

stepped down as Ontario NDP leader in 1978, Breaugh ran to succeed him. He received 499 votes at the 1978 NDP leadership convention, finishing a strong third in a field of three candidates. Most of his supporters went to Michael Cassidy rather than presumed frontrunner

Ian Deans Ian Deans (16 August 1937 – 3 May 2016) was a Scottish-Canadian politician. He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1979 and was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1980 to 1986. Backgr ...

on the second ballot, giving Cassidy a narrow victory. Breaugh was re-elected in the 1981 election, though by a narrower margin than before. Breaugh had a poor relationship with

Bob Rae Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...

, who succeeded Cassidy as party leader in 1982. The NDP experienced a modest recovery under Rae in the 1985 provincial election, and Breaugh was again re-elected by a significant margin in Oshawa. In the 1987 election, he defeated Liberal candidate Cathy O'Flynn by the reduced margin of 2,916 votes as the Liberals won a landslide provincial majority. Breaugh often clashed with Rae in the 1980s, criticising his leadership. In 1990, he left Queen's Park and ran for a seat in the

, in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

called in the federal Oshawa riding to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of former federal NDP leader

Ed Broadbent John Edward Broadbent (March 21, 1936 – January 11, 2024) was a Canadian social democracy, social-democratic politician and political scientist. He was leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1975 to 1989, and a Member of Parliament (Ca ...

. Breaugh again defeated O'Flynn, now running for the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (LPC; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. and generally sits at the Centrism, ...

, to win the

, which was held on August 13, a month before the 1990 Ontario election that brought Rae's NDP to power. Rae's government was largely responsible for Breaugh's defeat at the polls in 1993. The provincial NDP had by this time lost much of its support from organized labour, through austerity legislation known as the ''

Social Contract In moral and political philosophy, the social contract is an idea, theory, or model that usually, although not always, concerns the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual. Conceptualized in the Age of Enlightenment, it ...

''. This had a detrimental effect on the federal NDP, which lost all ten of its Ontario seats in the 1993 federal election. Breaugh was

unseated Unseating is a political term which refers to a legislator who loses their seat in an election. A legislator who is unseated loses the right to sit in a legislative chamber. A landslide victory results in many legislators being unseated. Austral ...

being reduced to a fourth-place finish in Oshawa, where the local branch of the

Canadian Auto Workers The National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada, commonly known as the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), was one of Canada's largest labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and Paperwork ...

had previously disaffiliated from the NDP. He supported

Howard Hampton Howard George Hampton (born May 17, 1952) is a politician who was a member of Provincial Parliament for the province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, from 1987 to 1999 in the electoral district of Rainy Ri ...

as leader of the Ontario NDP in 1996. Breaugh died on November 22, 2019.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Breaugh, Michael 1942 births 2019 deaths Canadian Roman Catholics Canadian schoolteachers Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario New Democratic Party MPs Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs Oshawa city councillors Politicians from Kingston, Ontario University of Toronto alumni 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario