Don Meredith (Canadian clergyman)
Encyclopedia
Don Meredith is an ordained minister in Canada, executive director of the GTA Faith Alliance
which focuses on the issue of youth violence, particularly involving gangs and guns, and a member of the Canadian Senate
. The GTA Faith Alliance has organized peace rallies in the Malvern
and Rexdale
communities of Toronto following incidents of violence as well as organizing town hall meetings on related community issues. Meredith was the Conservative
candidate in the March 17, 2008 federal by-election in Toronto Centre
. He received 12.5% of the vote, and placed fourth behind Liberal
victor Bob Rae
and the New Democratic
and Green
candidates.
, Meredith immigrated to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in the early 1980s. He attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute
and, while he was a student, began Donscape Landscaping Services which he still owns and operates.
Meredith was ordained as a minister in 2006, is a graduate of Rhema Studies of Theology Association and is the volunteer Senior Pastor at the Pentecostal Praise Centre in Maple, Ontario
close to Richmond Hill, Ontario
where he now lives. Previously, he was a minister at Grace Christian Life Centre in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough
. Meredith is a member of the Chief’s Advisory Council for the Toronto Police Services and has also been a member of the York Region Community Police Liaison since 2004, as well as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Consultative Committee since 2005. He is the former Co-Chair of the Black Community Police Consultative Committee an advisory group of community members who advise the police on various issues. Meredith participated in the “Black Family Summit” held in August 2006.
as its candidate in the downtown Toronto
riding of Toronto Centre
federal by-election held on March 17, 2008. Meredith won the Conservative nomination by acclamation
several weeks after the party controversially removed Mark Warner
as its standard-bearer.
Meredith is a social conservative who has spoken out against pre-marital sex and stated that "when we have marriages, we don't have these social problems." He has also stated that he personally believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman and that he is opposed to same-sex marriage
. Meredith has also stated that he would like to see the age of sexual consent raised to 18 from 14 which is it at odds with the Conservative government's stated intention to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16. Nonetheless, Meredith has indicated that he supports New Democratic Party
(NDP) Member of Parliament
(MP) Bill Siksay
's private member's bill
to add gender identity to the list of distinguishable group traits protected from hate speech
by the Criminal Code and to allow judges to take into account whether crimes were motivated by hatred of transgender
or transsexual people when determining the offender's sentence. In opposition, Stephen Harper
had opposed Siksay's predecessor, former NDP MP Svend Robinson
's successful private member's bill that added sexual orientation
to the law in 2004.
Meredith was criticized after he attended an all candidates meeting in the St. James Town neighbourhood and responded to a questioner complaining about the neighbourhood's ongoing problem with bedbug
s by suggesting that the problem may be related to the complainant's personal hygiene. Former Conservative candidate Mark Warner decided, as a result of this and his ouster, to endorse rival candidate Bob Rae
, saying of Meredith that “Telling your potential constituents ‘you stink, you don’t wash, you live in filth’ probably isn’t the best way to win an election.”
He placed fourth in the by-election which saw him receiving 12.5% of the vote, down from the 18.2% received by the Conservative candidate in the 2006 federal election and also down from the 18.3% that the Conservative candidate would receive in the federal election held seven months after the by-election.
Meredith was appointed to the Canadian Senate on December 18, 2010 on the advice of Prime Minister Harper. He sits as a Conservative.
|Bob Rae
|align=right|14,187
|align=right|59.2
|align=right|+7.0%
|-
|El-Farouk Khaki
|align=right|3,299
|align=right|13.8
|align=right|-9.9%
|-
|Chris Tindal
|align=right|3,263
|align=right|13.6
|align=right|+8.4%
|-
|Donald Meredith
|align=right|2,982
|align=right|12.5
|align=right|-5.7%
|-
|Animal Alliance
|Liz White
|align=right|123
|align=right|0.5
|align=right|+0.4%
|-
|Doug Plumb
|align=right|97
|align=right|0.4
|align=right|-
|-
|align="left" colspan=2|Liberal
hold
|align="right"|Swing
|align="right"| +8.5
|align="right"|
GTA Faith Alliance
The GTA Faith Alliance was founded in February 2003 as a joint effort of about 40 religious leaders focussing on the issue of youth violence, particularly involving gangs and guns...
which focuses on the issue of youth violence, particularly involving gangs and guns, and a member of the Canadian Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
. The GTA Faith Alliance has organized peace rallies in the Malvern
Malvern, Toronto
Malvern is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with a population of 44,315. It is located in the northeast corner of the city, in the district of Scarborough. Scarborough was merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new City of Toronto in 1998...
and Rexdale
Rexdale
Rexdale is a neighbourhood located in the north-west corner of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It covers the northern section of Etobicoke, which was an independent city until it merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new City of Toronto in 1998. Rexdale was named...
communities of Toronto following incidents of violence as well as organizing town hall meetings on related community issues. Meredith was the Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
candidate in the March 17, 2008 federal by-election in Toronto Centre
Toronto Centre
Toronto Centre is a federal electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1872 to 1925, and since 1935, under the names Centre Toronto , Toronto Centre , Rosedale and Toronto Centre—Rosedale .Toronto Centre covers the heart of...
. He received 12.5% of the vote, and placed fourth behind 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...
victor Bob Rae
Bob Rae
Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
and the New Democratic
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
and Green
Green Party of Canada
The Green Party of Canada is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1983 with 10,000–12,000 registered members as of October 2008. The Greens advance a broad multi-issue political platform that reflects its core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and...
candidates.
Background
Born and raised in JamaicaJamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, Meredith immigrated to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in the early 1980s. He attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute
Ryerson University
Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...
and, while he was a student, began Donscape Landscaping Services which he still owns and operates.
Meredith was ordained as a minister in 2006, is a graduate of Rhema Studies of Theology Association and is the volunteer Senior Pastor at the Pentecostal Praise Centre in Maple, Ontario
Maple, Ontario
Maple is a high-growth suburban community northwest of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, part of the city of Vaughan in York Region.-Geography:The west branch of the Don River rises to the northwest and flows 1 km west of Maple. Several creeks are to the east and the Black Creek begins slightly west...
close to Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Richmond Hill is a town located in Southern Ontario, Canada in the central portion of York Region, Ontario. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area, being located about halfway between Toronto and Lake Simcoe...
where he now lives. Previously, he was a minister at Grace Christian Life Centre in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough
Scarborough, Ontario
Scarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Steeles Avenue East, and on the east by the Rouge River...
. Meredith is a member of the Chief’s Advisory Council for the Toronto Police Services and has also been a member of the York Region Community Police Liaison since 2004, as well as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
Consultative Committee since 2005. He is the former Co-Chair of the Black Community Police Consultative Committee an advisory group of community members who advise the police on various issues. Meredith participated in the “Black Family Summit” held in August 2006.
Politics
In December 2007 he was nominated by the Conservative Party of CanadaConservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
as its candidate in the downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto
Downtown Toronto is the central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately bounded by Bloor Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don River to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west...
riding of Toronto Centre
Toronto Centre
Toronto Centre is a federal electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1872 to 1925, and since 1935, under the names Centre Toronto , Toronto Centre , Rosedale and Toronto Centre—Rosedale .Toronto Centre covers the heart of...
federal by-election held on March 17, 2008. Meredith won the Conservative nomination by acclamation
Acclamation
An acclamation, in its most common sense, is a form of election that does not use a ballot. "Acclamation" or "acclamatio" can also signify a kind of ritual greeting and expression of approval in certain social contexts in ancient Rome.-Voting:...
several weeks after the party controversially removed Mark Warner
Mark Warner (Canadian politician)
Mark A. A. Warner is a Canadian international trade and competition lawyer previously with the Toronto firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin and with the Government of Ontario....
as its standard-bearer.
Meredith is a social conservative who has spoken out against pre-marital sex and stated that "when we have marriages, we don't have these social problems." He has also stated that he personally believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman and that he is opposed to same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
. Meredith has also stated that he would like to see the age of sexual consent raised to 18 from 14 which is it at odds with the Conservative government's stated intention to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16. Nonetheless, Meredith has indicated that he supports New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
(NDP) Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) Bill Siksay
Bill Siksay
William Livingstone Siksay, former MP is a Canadian politician, and was the Member of Parliament who represented the British Columbia riding of Burnaby—Douglas for the New Democratic Party from 2004 to 2011.Receiving his high school diploma from McLaughlin Collegiate and Vocational Institute in...
's private member's bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
to add gender identity to the list of distinguishable group traits protected from hate speech
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
by the Criminal Code and to allow judges to take into account whether crimes were motivated by hatred of transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
or transsexual people when determining the offender's sentence. In opposition, Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
had opposed Siksay's predecessor, former NDP MP Svend Robinson
Svend Robinson
Svend Robinson is a former Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 2004, representing the suburban Vancouver-area constituency of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party...
's successful private member's bill that added sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
to the law in 2004.
Meredith was criticized after he attended an all candidates meeting in the St. James Town neighbourhood and responded to a questioner complaining about the neighbourhood's ongoing problem with bedbug
Bedbug
Cimicidae are small parasitic insects. The most common type is Cimex lectularius. The term usually refers to species that prefer to feed on human blood...
s by suggesting that the problem may be related to the complainant's personal hygiene. Former Conservative candidate Mark Warner decided, as a result of this and his ouster, to endorse rival candidate Bob Rae
Bob Rae
Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
, saying of Meredith that “Telling your potential constituents ‘you stink, you don’t wash, you live in filth’ probably isn’t the best way to win an election.”
He placed fourth in the by-election which saw him receiving 12.5% of the vote, down from the 18.2% received by the Conservative candidate in the 2006 federal election and also down from the 18.3% that the Conservative candidate would receive in the federal election held seven months after the by-election.
Meredith was appointed to the Canadian Senate on December 18, 2010 on the advice of Prime Minister Harper. He sits as a Conservative.
Awards
In 2006, Meredith received an Urban Leadership Award from the Canadian Urban Institute for being an “outspoken advocate against crime and for the advancement of a just society”.Electoral record
|-|Bob Rae
Bob Rae
Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
|align=right|14,187
|align=right|59.2
|align=right|+7.0%
|-
|El-Farouk Khaki
El-Farouk Khaki
El-Farouk Khaki is a Canadian refugee and immigration lawyer, and human rights activist on issues including gender equality, sexual orientation, and progressive Islam. He was the New Democratic Party's candidate for the House of Commons in the riding of Toronto Centre in a March 17, 2008 by-election...
|align=right|3,299
|align=right|13.8
|align=right|-9.9%
|-
|Chris Tindal
|align=right|3,263
|align=right|13.6
|align=right|+8.4%
|-
|Donald Meredith
|align=right|2,982
|align=right|12.5
|align=right|-5.7%
|-
|Animal Alliance
Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada
The Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada is a small registered political party in Canada. It was formed by two organizations, the Animal Alliance of Canada and Environment Voters. The latter had previously been organized as a subsidiary of the former...
|Liz White
Liz White (politician)
Elizabeth "Liz" White is a Canadian politician and animal rights activist residing in Toronto, Ontario. She is the current leader of the Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada, a minor federal political party in Canada.-Animal Alliance of Canada:...
|align=right|123
|align=right|0.5
|align=right|+0.4%
|-
|Doug Plumb
|align=right|97
|align=right|0.4
|align=right|-
|-
|align="left" colspan=2|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...
hold
|align="right"|Swing
|align="right"| +8.5
|align="right"|