Ursula Appolloni (née Carroll; 7 December 1929 – 28 December 1994) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) 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 ...

politician. She served in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

as a Liberal Member of Parliament for the

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

ridings of

York South York South was an electoral district (or "riding") in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1904 to 1979. The riding is notable for the 1942 federal by-election in which newly elected Conservative leader Ar ...

and

York South—Weston York South—Weston (french: York-Sud—Weston) is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1979. In 2015, York South—Weston elected Canada's first MP of Somali de ...

from 1974 to 1984.

Background

Appolloni was born in

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Ba ...

, Ireland as Ursula Carroll, and she served in Britain's

Women's Royal Air Force The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was the women's branch of the Royal Air Force. It existed in two separate incarnations: the Women's Royal Air Force from 1918 to 1920 and the Women's Royal Air Force from 1949 to 1994. On 1 February 1949, the ...

from 1948 to 1950. In 1954 she met her future husband, Lucio, who at the time was working at the Italian consulate in Liverpool, England. They married in 1958 in Italy where they resided until 1965. She became fluent in Italian. They had four children together, Luisa, Suzanne, Andrew, and Simon. Eventually they emigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto. Prior to entering politics, she was a freelance writer with numerous articles published in the ''

Toronto Telegram ''The Toronto Evening Telegram'' was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed wi ...

'', ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'' and ''

Catholic Register ''The Catholic Register'' is a Canadian weekly newspaper published by the Archdiocese of Toronto. Founded in 1893, it is the oldest English-language Catholic publication in Canada. Based in Toronto, Ontario, and circulated nationally, it is pub ...

'' and she worked as chairman of the Board of Referees, Employment and Immigration Canada. Appolloni also directed a children's mime opera. After her election in 1974 they moved to Ottawa where they remained until her death.

Politics

Appolloni was first involved in politics when she served as office manager for the campaign of

Charles Caccia Charles L. Caccia, (April 28, 1930 – May 3, 2008) was a Canadian politician. Caccia was a Liberal member of the House of Commons of Canada. He represented the Toronto riding of Davenport between 1968 and 2004. Background Caccia was bo ...

in the 1968 election. In 1974 she ran as the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a l ...

candidate in the riding of

against

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

leader David Lewis in the

federal election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

. Appolloni upset Lewis by 1,863 votes ending Lewis' political career. At his defeat, Lewis joked "One of the basic democratic rights is the right for the people to be wrong." Her husband, Lucio, had been the Liberal candidate in York South in the 1972 election. He lost to Lewis by almost 5,000 votes. She remained as MP for York South and its successor riding,

, until she retired in 1984. She was a

backbencher In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the ...

for most of her parliamentary career, except for serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence from 1980 to 1982. Issues that she supported during her tenure included the creation of pensions for housewives and putting unemployed youth in the military reserve. She supported the abolition of the death penalty and was an anti-abortionist. Some argued that it was her anti-abortion stance that kept her out of cabinet.

Later life

After leaving politics she worked as an editor for

Health and Welfare Canada The Department of National Health and Welfare (NHW), commonly known as Health and Welfare Canada, was a Canadian federal department established in 1944. Its advisory body on welfare was the National Council of Welfare. In June 1993, Prime Ministe ...

. A long-time smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer in June 1994 and died seven months later. Fellow Liberal

described her as "a person with a very big social conscience, with a particular interest in pensioners, women's rights and social justice."

Electoral record

York South

, - , Liberal , Ursula Appolloni , align="right", 12,485 ,

, David Lewis , align="right", 10,622 , Progressive Conservative , Paul J. Schrieder , align="right", 5,557 , Independent , Richard Sanders , align="right", 103 , Independent , Robert Douglas Sproule , align="right", 97

York South-Weston

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Appolloni, Ursula 1929 births 1994 deaths People from County Cavan 20th-century Irish people 20th-century Canadian politicians Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Irish emigrants to Canada Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Politicians from County Cavan Women in Ontario politics Women's Royal Air Force airwomen 20th-century Canadian women politicians Deaths from lung cancer in Ontario