Douglas Richard Reycraft (born March 9, 1943) is a former
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 ...
in Ontario,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
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 1985 to 1990 who represented the southwestern Ontario riding of Middlesex. From 2001 to 2014 he was mayor of Southwest Middlesex.
Background
Reycraft was born and raised in
London, Ontario
London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...
. He attended London Teachers' College and the
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
. The Liberal Party formed government following this election. He was re-elected by a greater margin in the 1987 election. He served as
Chief Government Whip
The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes.
United Kingdom
I ...
from September 29, 1987 to August 2, 1989.
The Liberals lost the 1990 provincial election to 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:
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, and Reycraft lost his riding to NDP candidate
Irene Mathyssen
Irene R. Mathyssen (born August 16, 1951) is a Canadian politician and was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada from 2006 until 2019. She was previously a New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in Ontari ...
by 520 votes. He attempted a comeback in the 1995 election, but lost to
Bruce Smith
Bruce Bernard Smith (born June 18, 1963) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end for 19 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily with the Buffalo Bills. He played college football for the Vir ...
of the Progressive Conservatives.
Reycraft returned to municipal politics, and was elected
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of
Southwest Middlesex, Ontario
Southwest Middlesex is a municipality in Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.
The restructured municipality of Southwest Middlesex was incorporated on January 1, 2001. This amalgamation joined the Village of Glencoe and the Wardsville, Ontario, Vi ...
in 2000. He was returned in 2003 by only 26 votes over challenger Tom Jeffrey, and was re-elected in 2006 and 2010. He lost re-election in 2014 by 17 votes to Deputy Mayor Vance Blackmore.
Reycraft also served as chair of the London-Middlesex Board of Health, chair of the London Middlesex Housing Authority, president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, chair of the Board of Directors of the Municipal Employers Pension Centre of Ontario and co-chair of the National Municipal Rail Safety Working Group of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
His son
Sean Reycraft
Sean Reycraft is a Canadian screenwriter, television producer and playwright."Reycraft's craft" '' is a television writer and producer."Prime Time: Citizen writer Tony Atherton follows a group of students taking a crash course on writing for TV". ''
Ottawa Citizen
The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
History
Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...