David Allan Tilson (born March 19, 1941) is a

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

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 a Progressive Conservative 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 ...

from 1990 to 2002, and served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Dufferin—Caledon from 2004 to 2019 as a member of the Conservative Party. When he left office, he was the oldest serving MP in the 42nd Parliament.

Background

Tilson was educated at the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English language, English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universiti ...

and Queen's University, and began practicing law in

Orangeville, Ontario Orangeville (Canada 2021 Census population of 30,167) is a town in south-central Ontario, Canada, and the seat of Dufferin County. History The first patent of land was issued to Ezekiel Benson, a land surveyor, on August 7, 1820. That was fol ...

in 1970. He served as a trustee on the Dufferin County Board of Education for two terms, and then as a municipal councillor in Orangeville for six years. In the latter capacity, he was the founding Chair of Orangeville's Blue Box program and a Director of the

Association of Municipalities of Ontario The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) is a non-profit organization representing municipal and regional governments in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was created on June 22, 1972 through a merger of the Ontario Municipal Associa ...

. He also served on the board of Westminster

United Church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestantism, Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinc ...

Ontario politics

Tilson was elected to the

Ontario legislature 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 ...

in the provincial election of 1990, defeating incumbent Liberal Mavis Wilson in Dufferin—Peel by 572 votes. The

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 ...

won this election, and Tilson spent the next five years as an opposition member. The Ontario Tories won a majority government in the provincial election of 1995, and Tilson greatly increased his margin of victory, defeating Wilson by almost 15,000 votes in a rematch. He was appointed chair of the government caucus in November 1997. Tilson won another landslide re-election victory for the new riding of

Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey could refer to: * Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey (federal electoral district) * Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey (provincial electoral district) {{Disambiguation ...

in the 1999 election. On April 2, 2002, he resigned his seat in the legislature to allow Premier

Ernie Eves Ernest Larry Eves (born June 17, 1946) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 23rd premier of Ontario from 2002 to 2003. A Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Progressive Conservative, he took over the premiership up ...

(who had been elected party leader without holding a seat) to run as a

parachute candidate A parachute candidate, or carpetbagger in the United States, is a pejorative term for an election candidate who does not live in the area they are running to represent and has little connection to it. The allegation is thus that a desperate polit ...

in a by-election. In 2003–04, he served as vice-chair of the

Ontario Municipal Board The Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) was an independent administrative board, operated as an adjudicative tribunal, in the province of Ontario, Canada. It heard applications and appeals on municipal and planning disputes, as well as other matters s ...

Federal politics

Tilson ran for 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 ...

in the federal election of 2004 and defeated incumbent Liberal Murray Calder by a margin of 43% to 39% in the new riding of Dufferin—Caledon. Tilson supported plans to cut farm support programs, including the AgriRecovery Program, by $2 billion over the next year. Tilson did not run for reelection in the 2019 federal election.

Electoral record

Federal

Provincial

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tilson, David 1941 births Conservative Party of Canada MPs Living people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Members of the United Church of Canada People from Orangeville, Ontario Politicians from Toronto Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs Queen's University at Kingston alumni University of New Brunswick alumni Lawyers in Ontario 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario