Michael E. Mantha is a politician in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. He was elected as New Democratic member of 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 ...

until his removal from the Ontario NDP caucus on March 31, 2023, after which he sat as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

. He was first elected in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

. He represented the riding of Algoma—Manitoulin until his defeat in the

2025 Ontario general election The 2025 Ontario general election was held on February 27, 2025, to elect the 124 members of the 44th Parliament of Ontario. Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Progressive Conservatives were re-elected to a third cons ...

Background

Prior to his election, Mantha was a staffer in the riding office of Carol Hughes, the federal Member of Parliament for Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing. He lives in

Elliot Lake Elliot Lake is a city in Algoma District, Ontario, Canada. It is north of Lake Huron, midway between the cities of Greater Sudbury, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie in the Northern Ontario region. Once dubbed the "uranium ca ...

with his wife Pauline and their two sons.

Politics

Mantha ran in the 2011 provincial election as the New Democratic candidate in the riding of Algoma—Manitoulin. He defeated Liberal incumbent Mike Brown by 4,188 votes. He was re-elected in the 2014 provincial election defeating Liberal candidate Craig Hughson by 7,668 votes. Mantha was re-elected in the 2022 Ontario general election. He served the party's critic for a number of portfolios, including Northern Development and Mines, Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation and Northern Development and Tourism. Mantha introduced several pieces of legislation, including a motion that was unanimously passed to create a

lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a tick-borne disease caused by species of ''Borrelia'' bacteria, Disease vector, transmitted by blood-feeding ticks in the genus ''Ixodes''. It is the most common disease spread by ticks in th ...

strategy in Ontario. On April 1, 2023, Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles removed Mantha from the caucus pending the results of an investigation into alleged misconduct involving a staffer. The decision was made after Stiles received an interim report on the allegations. On August 15, 2023, Mantha was permanently removed from the NDP caucus after a third-party investigation found that the allegations of workplace misconduct levied against him were substantiated. He stood for re-election as an independent but was defeated.

Electoral record

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mantha, Michael Franco-Ontarian people Living people Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs People from Elliot Lake Year of birth missing (living people) Independent MPPs in Ontario 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario