Michael Cassidy
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Michael Cassidy speaks at a federal NDP rally in 2006 |
Michael Morris Cassidy (born
May 10,
1937) is a
Canadian politician. He served in the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1984, and in the
Canadian House of Commons from 1984 to 1988. Cassidy was the leader of the
Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1978 to 1982.
He was born in
Victoria,
British Columbia, and was educated at the
University of Toronto and the
London School of Economics. He worked as a journalist before entering political life, and was bureau chief of the
Financial Times in
Ottawa for a period.
Cassidy was elected as an Ottawa
alderman in January 1970. The following year, he was elected to the Ontario legislature for
Ottawa Centre in the
1971 provincial election. Cassidy defeated
Progressive Conservative candidate
Garry Guzzo, who later served in the legislature from 1995 to 2003, by 182 votes. He did not immediately resign from his council seat, and held both positions until the provincial government banned concurrent tenure in 1972. Cassidy was re-elected with an increased majority in the
1975 election, in which the NDP under
Stephen Lewis reduced the Conservatives to a
minority government and became the official opposition in the legislature.
The NDP fell back to third place, behind the
Liberal Party, in the
1977 provincial election, and Lewis resigned as leader the following year. Cassidy entered the contest to succeed him and defeated
Ian Deans and
Michael Breaugh in February 1978. He had a difficult job following Lewis, who was a charismatic and dynamic figure. Cassidy, by comparison, had a rather dry personality. He was also the most left-wing of the three leadership candidates, and was not fully trusted by the party establishment. Cassidy's policy advisor in the leadership campaign was
James Laxer, a former leader of the
The Waffle NDP faction which had separated from the party in 1974. Some members of the NDP caucus considered his election as a serious mistake, and encouraged him to resign before contesting an election. Cassidy ignored this advice, and remained as leader.
The NDP fared poorly in the
1981 election, falling from 33 seats to 21. Their decline allowed the Progressive Conservatives to regain a
majority government, while the Liberals neither gained nor lost seats. Cassidy faced a difficult re-election in Ottawa Centre, and defeated Progressive Conservative candidate
David Small by only 599 votes. He stepped down as leader after the campaign, and was replaced in 1982 by
Bob Rae.
Donald C. MacDonald, another former NDP leader, would later described Cassidy's leadership as "an unhappy interlude for both him and the party". (MacDonald,
The Happy Warrior, p. 186.)
Cassidy then resigned as
Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) in 1984 to enter national politics. He campaigned for the federal
New Democratic Party in the
1984 election, and defeated
Progressive Conservative candidate
Dan Chilcott by 54 votes to win the Ottawa Centre riding. He was defeated in the
1988 election, losing to
Liberal Mac Harb by 762 votes.
Cassidy was appointed to the board of directors for
Ontario Hydro in the early 1990s, during Bob Rae's tenure as premier. He was fired without notice on
January 10,
1996 by the Progressive Conservative government of
Mike Harris, but was reinstated by a court order on
January 19. Cassidy opposed the Harris government's plan to restructure and partially privatize the crown corporation, and remained a director until 1997.
In recent years, Cassidy has become involved in a battle to protect
Tay River and the surrounding area from exploitation by multinational developers. He published an essay on the controversy in October 2005 [
1]. Cassidy has also operated the Ottawa-based Ginger Group Consultants firm, providing lobbying, strategic planning and public relations work for labour organizations and related groups.
