David Rotenberg
Encyclopedia
David Rotenberg is a former politician in Ontario
, Canada
. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
from 1977 to 1985 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party
, and was briefly a cabinet minister in the government of Frank Miller.
Rotenberg was born in Toronto
, and educated at the University of Toronto
. He worked as an insurance agent, and served on Toronto City Council
and Metro Toronto Council from 1961 to 1972. In the 1972 election
he ran for mayor, and lost to David Crombie in a close, three-way race. Rotenberg was later appointed as a commissioner on the Toronto Transit Commission
, and served from 1975 to 1977. He first campaigned for the Ontario legislature in the 1975 provincial election
, and finished second against Liberal
Vern Singer in Wilson Heights
.
He was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1977 provincial election
, defeating New Democratic Party candidate Howard Moscoe
by 2,993 votes (Singer had previously announced his retirement). He served as a backbench supporter of William Davis
's government, and defeated Liberal Elinor Caplan
to be re-elected in 1981
.
Rotenberg supported Dennis Timbrell
to succeed Davis as party leader and premier in 1985, and endorsed Larry Grossman
after Timbrell's elimination on the second ballot. Grossman lost to Frank Miller on the final count. After the leadership convention, Miller appointed Rotenberg to cabinet as a minister without portfolio
responsible for Urban Affairs.
Near the end of his tenure as premier, Bill Davis announced that he would extend full funding to the province's Catholic school system. Anglican Archbishop Lewis Garnsworthy
, a vocal opponent of the plan, responded by charging that Davis had changed Ontario's education system "by decree", in the same way that Adolf Hitler
had changed the education system in Nazi Germany
. Rotenberg later said that Garnsworthy's comments created a climate of religious intolerance in the province, and took support away from the Progressive Conservative Party. "I think he would probably get the Ian Paisley
award of the year, because his speech made it respectable to be anti-Catholic
," Rotenberg was quoted as saying. Although the opposition Liberals and New Democratic Party also supported full funding for Catholic schools, the governing Conservatives were more seriously affected because some of their religious supporters abstained from voting, depriving them of significant support. Garnsworthy's speech was credited with prolonging the controversy during the 1985 campaign.
Rotenberg was unseated in 1985 campaign
, losing to Liberal candidate Monte Kwinter
by 2,188 votes. The Progressive Conservatives were reduced to a minority government and it was brought down by a Liberal-NDP accord shortly after the election.
A decade later, Rotenberg attempted a return to politics and campaigned for the Canadian House of Commons
in the 1997 federal election
as a candidate of the Progressive Conservatives
in the riding of Eglinton—Lawrence
. He lost to incumbent Liberal
Joe Volpe
. The Canadian Alliance
tried to recruit Rotenberg as a candidate in Willowdale
for the 2000 federal election
, but he was disqualified because he had not been a party member for long enough.
Rotenberg has been named as an honorary officer in the Canadian Jewish Congress
.http://www.ukar.org/chrc/cjc01.html
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, 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 served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
from 1977 to 1985 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , is a right-of-centre political party in Ontario, Canada. The party was known for many years as "Ontario's natural governing party." It has ruled the province for 80 of the years since Confederation, including an uninterrupted run from 1943 to 1985...
, and was briefly a cabinet minister in the government of Frank Miller.
Rotenberg was born in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, and educated at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. He worked as an insurance agent, and served on Toronto City Council
Toronto City Council
The Toronto City Council is the governing body of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Members represent wards throughout the city, and are known as councillors....
and Metro Toronto Council from 1961 to 1972. In the 1972 election
Toronto municipal election, 1972
The 1972 Toronto municipal election was held December 4, 1972 to elect the governments of Toronto, the five other boroughs, and the government of Metro Toronto as well....
he ran for mayor, and lost to David Crombie in a close, three-way race. Rotenberg was later appointed as a commissioner on the Toronto Transit Commission
Toronto Transit Commission
-Island Ferry:The ferry service to the Toronto Islands was operated by the TTC from 1927 until 1962, when it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department. Since 1998, the ferry service is run by Toronto Parks and Recreation.-Gray Coach:...
, and served from 1975 to 1977. He first campaigned for the Ontario legislature in the 1975 provincial election
Ontario general election, 1975
The Ontario general election of 1975 was held on September 18, 1975, to elect the 125 members of the 30th Legislative Assembly of Ontario of the Province of Ontario, Canada....
, and finished second against Liberal
Ontario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...
Vern Singer in Wilson Heights
Wilson Heights (electoral district)
Wilson Heights was a provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada. It was created prior to the 1975 provincial election and eliminated in 1999, when most of its territory was incorporated into the ridings of York Centre, Willowdale and Eglinton—Lawrence...
.
He was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1977 provincial election
Ontario general election, 1977
The Ontario general election of 1977 was held on June 9, 1977, to elect the 125 members of the 31st Legislative Assembly of Ontario of the Province of Ontario, Canada....
, defeating New Democratic Party candidate Howard Moscoe
Howard Moscoe
Howard Moscoe was a city councillor in Toronto, Canada, representing Ward 15 in the western part of Eglinton-Lawrence. Among the most prominent and longest-serving councillors in the city, he is also known for an outspokenness which has landed him in controversy at times. Moscoe is a member of...
by 2,993 votes (Singer had previously announced his retirement). He served as a backbench supporter of William Davis
Bill Davis
William Grenville "Bill" Davis, was the 18th Premier of Ontario, Canada, from 1971 to 1985. Davis was first elected as the MPP for Peel in the 1959 provincial election where he was a backbencher in Leslie Frost's government. Under John Robarts, he was a cabinet minister overseeing the education...
's government, and defeated Liberal Elinor Caplan
Elinor Caplan
Elinor Caplan, PC is a retired politician and businesswoman in Ontario, Canada. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1997, and was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1997 to 2004...
to be re-elected in 1981
Ontario general election, 1981
The Ontario general election of 1981 was held on March 19, 1981, to elect members of the 32nd Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada....
.
Rotenberg supported Dennis Timbrell
Dennis Timbrell
Dennis Roy Timbrell is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1987, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of William Davis and Frank Miller.-Early life and career:...
to succeed Davis as party leader and premier in 1985, and endorsed Larry Grossman
Larry Grossman
Lawrence "Larry" Sheldon Grossman was a politician in Ontario, Canada.-Early years:Born in Toronto, Grossman was the son of Allan Grossman, who had represented a downtown Toronto riding in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for twenty years after defeating Ontario's last Communist Member of...
after Timbrell's elimination on the second ballot. Grossman lost to Frank Miller on the final count. After the leadership convention, Miller appointed Rotenberg to cabinet as a minister without portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
responsible for Urban Affairs.
Near the end of his tenure as premier, Bill Davis announced that he would extend full funding to the province's Catholic school system. Anglican Archbishop Lewis Garnsworthy
Lewis Garnsworthy
Lewis Samuel Garnsworthy was a Canadian religious leader. He served as the Anglican Bishop of Toronto from 1972 to 1989 and was the Archbishop of the ecclesiastical province of Ontario from 1979 to 1985.-Early life:...
, a vocal opponent of the plan, responded by charging that Davis had changed Ontario's education system "by decree", in the same way that Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
had changed the education system in Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Rotenberg later said that Garnsworthy's comments created a climate of religious intolerance in the province, and took support away from the Progressive Conservative Party. "I think he would probably get the Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...
award of the year, because his speech made it respectable to be anti-Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
," Rotenberg was quoted as saying. Although the opposition Liberals and New Democratic Party also supported full funding for Catholic schools, the governing Conservatives were more seriously affected because some of their religious supporters abstained from voting, depriving them of significant support. Garnsworthy's speech was credited with prolonging the controversy during the 1985 campaign.
Rotenberg was unseated in 1985 campaign
Ontario general election, 1985
The Ontario general election of 1985 was held on May 2, 1985, to elect members of the 33rd Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada...
, losing to Liberal candidate Monte Kwinter
Monte Kwinter
Monte Kwinter is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 1985, was a cabinet minister in the government of David Peterson from 1985 to 1990, and was re-appointed to a cabinet position when the Liberals returned to power under Dalton...
by 2,188 votes. The Progressive Conservatives were reduced to a minority government and it was brought down by a Liberal-NDP accord shortly after the election.
A decade later, Rotenberg attempted a return to politics and campaigned for the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
in the 1997 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...
as a candidate of the Progressive Conservatives
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
in the riding of Eglinton—Lawrence
Eglinton—Lawrence
Eglinton—Lawrence is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1979, and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 1999....
. He lost to incumbent Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
Joe Volpe
Joe Volpe
Giuseppe Joseph "Joe" Volpe, PC, was a Canadian politician. He was a Liberal member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1988 until the 2011 federal election, being surpassed by the conservative member Joe Oliver Joe Oliver, and held two senior positions in Prime Minister Paul Martin's Cabinet...
. The Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
tried to recruit Rotenberg as a candidate in Willowdale
Willowdale (electoral district)
Willowdale is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1979.The riding was created in 1976 from part of Eglinton....
for the 2000 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2000
The 2000 Canadian federal election was held on November 27, 2000, to elect 301 Members of Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons of the 37th Parliament of Canada....
, but he was disqualified because he had not been a party member for long enough.
Rotenberg has been named as an honorary officer in the Canadian Jewish Congress
Canadian Jewish Congress
The Canadian Jewish Congress was one of the main lobby groups for the Jewish community in the country, although it often competed with the more conservative B'nai Brith Canada in that regard. At its dissolution, the president of the CJC was Mark Freiman. Its past co-presidents were Sylvain Abitbol...
.http://www.ukar.org/chrc/cjc01.html