Thomas Charles Cossitt (15 November 1923 – 15 March 1982) was a Canadian politician. Born in Brockville, Ontario, the son of Edwin Comstock Cossitt and Marjorie Helen Delahaye, he graduated from St. Andrew's College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

. After graduating, he was the owner and president of an insurance company. He was president of the Eastern Ontario Liberal Federation and a vice-president of the Ontario Liberal Party. However, he switched to the Progressive Conservatives before being elected to 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 1972 election in the riding of

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. He was re-elected in 1974,

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

, and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, the last two elections in the riding of Leeds—Grenville. Cossitt's positions on bilingualism were a topic of discussion during the 1972 and 1974 elections. During the 1972 election, he took out newspaper advertisements with the tagline "I'm not anti-French, but...". In the 1974 election, he was quoted in the

Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

as saying "Instant bilingualism is not only stupid and arrogant, it's just plain nuts". Cossitt stressed that while he supported both official languages, it was necessary to consider the financial burden of the Trudeau government's

new policies Late Qing reforms (), commonly known as New Policies of the late Qing dynasty (), or New Deal of the late Qing dynasty, simply referred to as New Policies, were a series of cultural, economic, educational, military, diplomatic, and political refo ...

. Cossitt, who had two previous heart attacks, collapsed from a third heart attack during a photo session at the annual directors' meeting of the Leeds-Grenville Progressive Conservative Riding Association on the evening of 15 March 1982. He was taken to Brockville General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, aged 58. His second wife,

Jennifer Cossitt Jennifer Cossitt (née Birchall; born 22 June 1948) was a Progressive Conservative party member of the House of Commons of Canada. She was a business executive by career. Her husband was Thomas Cossitt, member of Parliament for the Leeds— ...

(née Birchall) was elected in the resulting by-election and re-elected in the 1984 election before being defeated in the 1988 election.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cossitt, Thomas 1927 births 1982 deaths 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs University of Toronto alumni St. Andrew's College (Aurora) alumni People from Brockville