Michael Charles Ray (August 27, 1936 – October 7, 2021) was a politician in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a

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from 1987 to 1990.

Background

Ray graduated from the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames Ri ...

, with a B.A. (Hons) in Economics and Political Science. He received a teaching degree from the

Ontario College of Education The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) is Canada's only all-graduate institute of teaching, learning and research, located in Toronto, Ontario. It is located directly above the St. George subway sta ...

, a law degree from the

University of Windsor , mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge , established = , academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada , former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963) , type = Public univers ...

Law School and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1973. Ray worked as a lawyer and was director of clinical law at the Faculty of Law, Legal Assistance Program of the University of Windsor. He was instrumental in developing the curriculum for clinical law students. His influence helped change the practice to allow legal students more access to clinical experience in all court rooms.

Politics

In 1980, Ray was elected to the Windsor City Council where he served as an alderman in Windsor from 1980 to 1987. Ray was elected to the Ontario legislature as a Member of the 34th Provincial Parliament in the 1987 provincial election, defeating

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Dev ...

candidate Donna Champagne by 946 votes in the constituency of

Windsor—Walkerville Windsor—Walkerville was a federal electoral district that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1968 to 1988. It was located in the southwest corner of the province of Ontario. This riding was created in 1966 from parts of E ...

. He served in

David Peterson David Robert Peterson (born December 28, 1943) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th premier of Ontario from 1985 to 1990. He was the first Liberal officeholder in 42 years, ending the so-called Tory dynasty. Backg ...

's government for the next three years. The Liberals were defeated by the NDP in the 1990 provincial election, and Ray lost his seat to

Wayne Lessard Wayne Lessard (born January 12, 1956) is former a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was as a New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 1990 to 1995, and again from 1997 to 1999. Background Lessard was educated at the Univ ...

of the NDP by 4,318 votes. https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/mike-ray-former-city-councillor-and-windsor-mpp-dies#:~:text=Ray%2C%20first%20elected%20to%20Windsor%20council%20in%201980,Windsor-Walkerville%20and%20served%20at%20Queen%E2%80%99s%20Park%20until%201990.

Later life

After his career in politics, Ray returned to practicing law and acted as the lead regional counsel for the Support and Custody Legal Services Branch of the Ministry of the attorney general. Ray was appointed to the board of the Windsor Regional Hospital in 2004, served until 2013 and was a chairman of the board. Ray also served as a director of the Windsor Port Authority from 2006 to 2015, and as a member of the Windsor Police Services Board. He died on October 7, 2021.Michael Charles Ray
obituary

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Mike 1936 births 2021 deaths Ontario Liberal Party MPPs Politicians from Hamilton, Ontario University of Western Ontario alumni University of Windsor alumni Windsor, Ontario city councillors