Cy Gonick is a former politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 in Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the lieutenant governor form the Legislature of Manitoba, the legislature of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly in provincial general elections, all in single-member constituencies with first-past-the-post...

 from 1969 to 1973, sitting as a member of the New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party of Manitoba

The New Democratic Party of Manitoba is a social-democratic political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is the provincial wing of the federal New Democratic Party, and is a successor to the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation...

.

Gonick was born in Canada, and attended university at Columbia and Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 in the 1960s. During this period, he was a founding editor of Canadian Dimension

Canadian Dimension

Canadian Dimension is a Canadian leftist magazine founded in 1963 by Cy Gonick, and published out of Winnipeg, Manitoba 6 times a year, with a circulation of 3,000 copies....

, a socialist journal based in Winnipeg.

Gonick was elected to the legislature in the provincial election of 1969

Manitoba general election, 1969

The Manitoba General Election of June 25, 1969 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was a watershed moment in the province's political history. The social-democratic New Democratic Party emerged for the first time as the largest party in...

, defeating incumbent Progressive Conservative

Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba

The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is the only right wing political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is also the official opposition party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.-Origins and early years:...

 Gurney Evans

Gurney Evans

Edward Gurney Vaux Evans was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1953 to 1969, and served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Dufferin Roblin and Walter Weir...

 by 273 votes in the Winnipeg riding of Crescentwood. He was a backbencher in Edward Schreyer

Edward Schreyer

Edward Richard Schreyer , commonly known as Ed Schreyer, is a Canadian politician, diplomat, and statesman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 22nd since Canadian Confederation....

's government for the next four years.

Gonick was the only Manitoba NDP MLA who was an avowed member of "The Waffle

The Waffle

The Waffle was a radical wing of Canada's New Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little electoral success before it permanently disbanded in the mid-1970s...

" during this period. He frequently criticized his government from a left-wing perspective, particularly on issues such as medical billing practices and the foreign ownership of natural resources. On one occasion, he introduced a private member's bill which would have forced all medical doctors to make their incomes public.

He did not run for re-election in 1973, and did not seek a return to provincial politics after this time. He returned to teaching at the University of Manitoba

University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

 where he was the program coordinator for the Labour and Workplace Studies Program, retiring in 2001.

His son Noam Gonick

Noam Gonick

Noam Gonick RCA is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and artist.The son of radical Marxist and former Manitoba MLA Cy Gonick, Noam supplemented his formal film education by studying directors Guy Maddin and Bruce LaBruce. His survey of Maddin's life and work became the documentary Waiting...

is a noted Canadian film director.

Major publications

• Out of Work : Why There's So Much Unemployment, and Why It's Getting Worse (1978)
• Inflation or Depression : The Continuing Crisis of the Canadian Economy (1975)
• The Great Economic Debate : Failed Economics and a Future for Canada (1987)
• A Very Red Life: The Story of Bill Walsh (2001)