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Allan Grossman (December 25, 1910 – September 1, 1991) was a 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 ...
, Canada, for 20 years, a provincial cabinet minister and the father of the late former leader of the
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC; ), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party, or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada. During its uninterrupted governance from 1 ...
, Larry Grossman. Together, the father and son represented the
downtown Toronto Downtown Toronto is the main city centre of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the nor ...
,
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, riding of
St. Andrew Andrew the Apostle ( ; ; ; ) was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called () used by the Eastern Orthodox Chu ...
, and its successor St. Andrew—St. Patrick, for 32 consecutive years. Allan was also the second Jewish Canadian Cabinet minister in Ontario, after David Croll, and the first to be a Tory. He was also the first elected Canadian official to visit China.


Background

Grossman's father, Moishe, had left
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n occupied
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
in 1907. Two years later, Moishe Grossman brought his wife Sarah and their then six children to Canada. Allan Grossman was the seventh child and the first member of the family to be born in Canada. At age sixteen Grossman and a handful of other boys formed the "Junior Conservative Association of Toronto". Probably the first Toronto political organization for youths, it was the beginning of the " Young Progressive Conservatives."


Political life

Grossman became a successful businessman and organized his fellow insurance agents into a union to fight the entry into Canada of an allegedly
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
-dominated union from the
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. He was president of Allan Grossman Insurance Services Ltd. In 1951, former Toronto mayor, Nathan Phillips, then an
alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...
, was vacating his council seat to run for mayor. He persuaded Grossman to run in his
ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
against the
Labor-Progressive Party The Labor-Progressive Party (LPP; ) was the legal Front organization, front of the Communist Party of Canada and its provincial wings from 1943 to 1959. It was established amid World War II after a number of prominent Communist Party members w ...
(as the Communists were known) candidate who had narrowly been defeated during the previous year's election. Grossman ran and defeated the Communist candidate by a margin of 131 votes. The following year he won by 2,000 votes and became the senior alderman and one of the founding members of the
Metropolitan Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...
Council. He was re-elected alderman in the subsequent two annual elections. In 1955, he ran provincially as the Progressive Conservative candidate against the Labor-Progressive Party incumbent J. B. Salsberg for the downtown Toronto riding of St. Andrew. Grossman won, defeating the last Communist in the Ontario legislature. In 1960, Ontario Premier
Leslie Frost Leslie Miscampbell Frost (September 20, 1895 – May 4, 1973) was a politician in Ontario, Canada, who served as the province's 16th premier from May 4, 1949, to November 8, 1961. Due to his lengthy tenure, he gained the nickname "Old Man O ...
appointed Grossman to the Cabinet as
Minister Without Portfolio A minister without portfolio is a government minister without specific responsibility as head of a government department. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authorit ...
, becoming the first
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish cabinet minister in Ontario since David Croll. Grossman went on to serve under Premier
John Robarts John Parmenter Robarts (January 11, 1917 – October 18, 1982) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th premier of Ontario from 1961 to 1971. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Early life Roba ...
as Chief Liquor Commissioner and Minister of Reform Institutions (now Correctional Services). During his nearly eight years as minister Grossman became renowned throughout
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and
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for his innovative and progressive
penal reform Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, reduce recidivism or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are i ...
s. His leadership was recognized with numerous citations, and in 1971 the
University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...
bestowed upon him with an
honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
in
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. In 1971, Grossman was appointed by Robarts successor,
Bill Davis William Grenville Davis, (July 30, 1929 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Ontario from 1971 to 1985. Behind Oliver Mowat, Davis was the List of premiers of Ontario by time in office, second-longes ...
. as Minister of Trade and Development, with additional responsibility for Housing. He led the first trade mission from the
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to
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Grossman became Minister of Revenue in 1972 and continued his responsibility for housing. He introduced Ontario's tax credit program to assist the elderly and low income families and eliminated much of the red tape that generally plagues a tax-collecting Ministry. In 1974, Grossman became the Provincial Secretary for Resources Development with overall policy responsibility for seven ministries. Outside politics Grossman fought to help the Hungarian
freedom fighter A freedom fighter is a person engaged in a struggle to achieve political freedom, particularly against an established government. The term is typically reserved for those who are actively involved in armed or otherwise violent rebellion. Termi ...
s and their Canadian relatives; the citizens of
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who cried for freedom during the Russian invasion; and, as President of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Service, he assisted homeless persons.


Cabinet posts


Fire rescue

While Grossman was campaigning for reelection in 1967, he saw a man whose clothes were on fire. The man had been working on his car and the clothes were greasy. He was saved when Grossman and a police constable used their coats to smother the flames.


After politics

After retiring from public life in 1975, Allan Grossman served as chairman of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (Canada) until 1984 and he worked on his son's campaigns for the Ontario PC leadership in 1985 and afterwards served as a volunteer advisor to Larry and the Ontario Tory
caucus A caucus is a group or meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures. The term originated in the United States, where it can refer to ...
. In 1985, a biography was published, ''Unlikely Tory: The Life and Politics of Allan Grossman'' by Peter Oliver .


Death

Grossman died on September 1, 1991, of cancer in Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Center; he was 80 years old.


References


Notes


Citations


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grossman, Allan 1910 births 1991 deaths Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish Canadian politicians Members of the Executive Council of Ontario Politicians from Toronto Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario