Norman Augustine Cafik, (December 29, 1928 – September 30, 2016) was a

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politician. Born in

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of a Ukrainian-Polish father and a Scottish-Irish mother, Cafik was unsuccessful in his attempts to win a

seat A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

in the

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in the

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

and 1963 elections, but was elected as the

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Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of

in the 1968 election. Cafik's

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

re-election, defeating former

Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an election v ...

era minister

Frank Charles McGee Frank Charles McGee, (3 March 1926 – 4 April 1999) was a Canadian businessman, member of parliament, and, briefly, a Cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in con ...

was particularly notable. He was initially reported to have lost his riding, yielding a 108-seat tie between the Stanfield Progressive Conservatives and the Trudeau Liberals. Subsequent re-count confirmed Cafik's victory over McGee by 4 votes, giving the Liberals a two-seat lead in the minority parliament. He attempted to move to provincial politics, running in 1973 for the leadership of the

Ontario Liberal Party The Ontario Liberal Party (OLP; , PLO) is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by Bonnie Crombie since December 2023. The party espouses the principles of liberalism, with their rival the Progressive Co ...

. He lost on the third ballot of the

leadership convention {{Politics of Canada In Politics of Canada, Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leadership, leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader. Overview In Canada, ...

to Robert Nixon. In 1977, he was the second person of Ukrainian descent to be appointed to the

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when

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Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was a Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his no ...

made him

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for

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. ( Michael Starr was appointed by

John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker (September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 an ...

as the first Ukrainian in Cabinet.) He lost his seat in the House in the 1979 election that defeated the Trudeau government and returned to private life. He died on September 30, 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cafik, Norman 1928 births 2016 deaths Canadian people of Ukrainian descent Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada Politicians from Toronto 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada