Peter Wong (July 8, 1931 – June 6, 1998) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician who was Mayor of Sudbury from 1982 to 1991, and chair of the

Regional Municipality of Sudbury The Regional Municipality of Sudbury was a regional municipality that existed in Ontario, Canada, from 1973 to 2000, and was primarily centred on the city of Sudbury. It served as an upper-tier level of municipal government, aggregating municipal ...

from 1997 until his death the following year.

Early life

Born in

Moose Jaw Moose Jaw is the List of cities in Saskatchewan, fourth largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. Lying on the Moose Jaw River in the south-central part of the province, it is situated on the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Regina, Saskatchewan, Re ...

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, and raised in the village of Radville,Peter Wong
. ''Wongs Who's Who''. Wong studied

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

, graduating in 1954. He worked for Ontario's Department of Highways, and spent two years working on infrastructure projects in

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, before taking a job with Sudbury's municipal public works department. In this position he played a key role in the process that saw the Nelson Street bridge, formerly the primary connection between the downtown core and the Ramsey Lake neighbourhood, replaced with the extension of Paris Street across the Bridge of Nations. By the early 1980s he had been promoted to the city's senior engineer, as well as serving as a trustee on the Rainbow District School Board.Members' Statements: The Late Peter Wong
''

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'', June 10, 1998. Wong was also an avid curler, and played second for the Northern Ontario team at the 1973 Macdonald Brier, on a team skipped by Don Harry. The rink went 3-7 at the event. Wong and his wife Lynn had two children."Member's Statements: Peter Wong"
''

'' of Ontario, June 8, 1998.

Mayoralty

After losing his job with the city in a round of austerity measures incumbent mayor Maurice Lamoureux had implemented in early 1982, Wong successfully challenged Lamoureux for the mayoralty in that year's municipal election. He was the city's first non- European mayor, as well as the first Chinese Canadian mayor of a major Canadian city and only the third Chinese Canadian mayor ever elected in any municipality. His term as mayor was marked by efforts to diversify the city's

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

-based economy, John Sewell, "Sudbury's greening". ''

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'', July 8, 1985. as well as expansion of the city's extensive

environmental remediation Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from Natural environment, environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be ...

programs. Notable projects taking place during his term included the creation of Science North, an interactive

science museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, Industry (manufacturing), industry and Outline of industrial ...

which launched in 1984, and the city's hosting of the 1988 World Junior Championships in Athletics.C.M. Wallace and Ashley Thomson, ''Sudbury: Rail Town to Regional Capital''.

Dundurn Press Dundurn Press is one of the largest Canadian-owned book publishing companies of adult fiction and non-fiction. The company publishes Canadian literature, history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Hum ...

, 1993. . p. 281. He also launched Action Sudbury, a municipal awareness campaign to combat drinking and driving, in 1984. In 1989, Peter and Lynn Wong attended a parade in Sudbury, Massachusetts, as special guests on the occasion of that town's 350th anniversary. In the 1991 municipal elections, former mayor Jim Gordon sought a return to office, and Wong was defeated."Retiring mayor awarded lasting legacy"
'' Northern Life'', March 19, 2006. He subsequently served on several municipal and provincial boards and commissions, including as a vice-chair of the Ontario Highway Transport Board and as chair of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, as a chair of the local

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, and as a board member of the Sudbury Regional Hospital.

Regional chair

In the 1997 municipal elections, the provincial government reformed the structure of the regional municipality, making the position of regional council chair a generally elected position for the first time. The position had previously been filled by a vote within council. Wong stood as a candidate and won over challenger Frank Mazzuca, becoming the municipality's first elected regional chair. After serving less than a year in that office, Wong died of a heart attack on June 6, 1998, while attending a meeting of the

Federation of Canadian Municipalities The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM, ''Fédération canadienne des municipalités'') is an advocacy group representing over 2000 Canadian municipalities. It is an organization with no formal power but significant ability to influence ...

in Regina. On June 8, tributes to Wong were delivered in 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 ...

Rick Bartolucci Rick Bartolucci (born October 10, 1943) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Ontario Liberal Party, Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014. He represented the riding of Sudbury (provincial elector ...

and Shelley Martel, and on June 10, a tribute was delivered in the

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by Ray Bonin. Mazzuca, Wong's challenger in the 1997 election, won the by-election following Wong's death, and was the final chair of the regional municipality before its amalgamation into the current city of

Greater Sudbury Sudbury, officially the City of Greater Sudbury, is the largest city in Northern Ontario by population, with a population of 166,004 at the 2021 Canadian Census. By land area, it is the largest in Ontario and the List of the largest cities and t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Peter 1931 births 1998 deaths Mayors of Sudbury, Ontario Canadian people of Chinese descent Curlers from Northern Ontario Curlers from Saskatchewan Canadian sportsperson-politicians Politicians from Moose Jaw Ontario school board trustees People from Radville, Saskatchewan 20th-century mayors of places in Ontario