Michael Colle

Mike Colle MPP
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Eglinton—Lawrence Oakwood (1995-1999)
Incumbent
Assumed office June 8, 1995
Preceded by	Tony Rizzo
Personal details
Born	February 1, 1945 Foggia, Italy
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Sharon
Children	Josh
Residence	Toronto, Ontario
Occupation	Teacher

Michael (Mike) Colle (born February 1, 1945) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who was elected in 1995. He represents the riding of Eglinton—Lawrence. He served as a cabinet minister in the government of Dalton McGuinty.

Background

Colle moved to Canada at a young age, and was educated at Carleton University. He worked as a teacher of history and economics for eighteen years, including several years at Michael Power High School and St. Michael's College School in Toronto.

His son Josh was elected to Toronto City Council in the 2010 election.

Politics

Municipal

Colle served on the City of York municipal council from 1982 to 1985, and on the Metro Toronto Council as a York representative from 1988 to 1994. He was also chair of the Toronto Transit Commission from 1991 to 1994.

Provincial

Colle was elected to the Ontario legislature in the provincial election of 1995, defeating incumbent New Democrat Tony Rizzo in the riding of Oakwood by about 1000 votes.^[1] In the provincial election of 1999, Colle defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative John Parker by about 9,000 votes in the redistributed riding of Eglinton—Lawrence.^[2] The Progressive Conservatives won both elections, and Colle sat in opposition during this period. In 1996, Colle supported Dwight Duncan's unsuccessful bid to become Liberal Party leader.

First and second terms

Colle championed environmental causes during his time in the legislature including the protection of the Oak Ridges Moraine. He was a co-chair of Mel Lastman's 1997 bid to become Mayor of Toronto. Lastman was also supported by prominent members of the Progressive Conservative Party in Toronto, and was opposed by members of the social democratic New Democratic Party.

Third term

The Liberals won the 2003 election, and Colle was re-elected by over 10,000 votes in his own riding.^[3] He served as a backbench supporter of the government of Dalton McGuinty. On October 23, 2003, he was named Parliamentary Assistant to Greg Sorbara, the provincial Finance Minister.

Colle was promoted to cabinet on June 29, 2005 as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.^[4]

Colle was criticized for his role in giving out $32 million in government grants to immigrant and cultural groups without official applications or formal statements of purpose. In one case that the auditor general highlighted, the Ontario Cricket Association received $1 million when it asked for $150,000.^[5] Premier McGuinty agreed to commission a special report on the matter, to be released in July 2007.^[6] Colle was to appear before the Standing Committee on Estimates before the Legislature was prorogued by the Premier. Some believe this was arranged to prevent his testimony from going public.^[7]

On July 26, 2007, Colle resigned as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. Gerry Phillips was sworn in as the new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, in addition to his responsibilities as Minister of Government Services.^[8]

Cabinet positions

Fourth term

In October 2007 he was re-elected to serve his fourth term to represent the Eglinton-Lawrence riding.^[9] During this term he has held two senior positions in the party. From October 2007 to February 2010 he was Chief Government Whip. He served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services from February 2010 to December 2010. In December 2010, he was appointed as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Children and Youth Services.

On February 24, 2009, Colle introduced the Zero Tolerance to Violence on Public Transit Act, 2009 in an attempt to address the growing incidence of gun violence on Toronto Public Transit.^[10]

On March 25, 2009 Colle appeared to buck his own party by introducing Bill 160: The Caregiver and Foreign Worker Recruitment Act, 2009. This was in response to a Toronto Star expose on the abuse of foreign nannies.^[11] After some initial reluctance by the government, Colle was able to convince the Labour Minister and the government to intervene to stop the abuse.^[12] The government committed to introducing legislation to license "nanny brokers", ban placement fees, and post licensed placement agencies on an online registry.

The McGuinty government introduced Bill 210, Employment Protection for Foreign Nationals Act (Live-in Caregivers and Others), 2009 (EPFNA) on October 21, 2009 and passed the "Nanny Protection Act" on December 15, 2009.

In 2010, Colle took on the issue of bedbugs eventually convincing Health Minister Deb Matthews to provide $5 million to fight the scourge with a bedbug strategy.^[13]

Colle also spent most of his fourth term advocating to get the Eglinton Crosstown LRT built. The provincial government has committed $8 billion for the new Eglinton line that runs along the southern border of his riding of Eglinton-Lawrence. He has been on a personal crusade to get the Crosstown built ever since the Harris government cancelled the Eglinton subway in 1996 even after the tunnel was dug.^[14]

Fifth term

In October 2011 he was re-elected to serve his fifth term to represent the Eglinton-Lawrence riding.^[15] He was appointed as the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Infrastructure. During this term Colle organized a petition requesting that a station on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line be added at Oakwood Avenue.^[16][17]

Sixth term

In June 2014 he was re-elected to serve his sixth term to represent the Eglinton-Lawrence riding.^[18] He serves as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation. He was also appointed as Deputy Government Whip.

In March 2016 Colle tabled the Tomato Act, proclaiming the tomato as the official vegetable of Ontario (despite it being technically a fruit) and designating July 15 as Tomato Day.^[19][20]

Electoral record

Ontario general election, 2014
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mike Colle	22,825	54.8
	Progressive Conservative	Robin Martin	14,069	33.7
	New Democratic	Thomas Gallezot	3,044	7.3
	Green	Lucas McCann	1,314	3.2
	Freedom	Michael Bone	265	0.6
	Independent	Jerry Green	144	0.3

Ontario general election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mike Colle	20,752	54.1
	Progressive Conservative	Rocco Rossi	12,857	33.5
	New Democratic	Gerti Dervershi	3,763	9.8
	Green	Josh Rachlis	575	1.5
	Freedom	Michael Bone	152	0.4
	Independent	Jerry Green	146	0.4
	Independent	Sujith Kumar Reddy	79	0.2

Ontario general election, 2007
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mike Colle	17,324	43.1
	Progressive Conservative	Bernie Tanz	15,098	37.5
	New Democratic	Karin Wiens	4,135	10.3
	Green	Andrew James	2,899	7.2
	Libertarian	Tom Gelmon	296	0.7
	Family Coalition	Rina Morra	253	0.6
	Freedom	Franz Cauchi	128	0.3
	Independent	Joseph Young	107	0.3

Ontario general election, 2003
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mike Colle	23,743	56.89	+0.11
	Progressive Conservative	Corinne Korzen	12,402	29.72	-5.53
	New Democratic	Robin Alter	43,51	10.43	+6.12
	Green	Mark Viitala	1,236	2.96	+1.86

Ontario general election, 1999
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Mike Colle	24,151	56.78
	Progressive Conservative	John Parker	14,994	35.25
	New Democratic	Jay Waterman	1,835	4.31
	Family Coalition	Frank D'Angelo	821	1.93
	Green	Shelly Lipsey	470	1.1
	Natural Law	Neil C. Dickie	263	0.62

Ontario general election, 1995
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Mike Colle	8,599
	New Democratic	(x)Tony Rizzo	7,624
	Progressive Conservative	Courtney Doldron	3,298
	Independent	Joseph Flexer	821
	Green	Constantine Kritsonis	269
	Natural Law	Doug Storey	135
	Libertarian	Nunzio Venuto	100

References

1. "Summary of Valid Ballots by Candidate". Elections Ontario. June 8, 1995. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
2. "Summary of Valid Ballots by Candidate". Elections Ontario. June 3, 1999. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
3. "Summary of Valid Ballots by Candidate". Elections Ontario. October 2, 2003. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
4. "Cabinet shuffle focuses on health care, education; McGuinty to head new Research and Innovation ministry". The Kitchener Record. June 30, 2005. p. A5.
5. Ferguson, Rob (6 June 2007). "Summer break starting early at Queen's Park". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2007-07-26.
6. Howlett, Karen. "McGuinty asks auditor to probe multicultural grants". The Globe and Mail (Toronto). Retrieved 2007-07-26.
7. Howlett, Karen (5 June 2007). "Ontario legislature prorogued". The Globe and Mail (Toronto). Retrieved 2007-07-26.
8. Cohen, Tobi and Puxley, Chinta (26 July 2007). "Minister quits over grants". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2007-07-26.
9. "Summary of Valid Ballots Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. October 10, 2007. p. 4 (xiii). Retrieved 2014-03-02.
10. Coorsh, Karolyn (March 19, 2009). "New bill proposes $50,000 and more jail time". Town Crier (Leaside-Rosedale).
11. Brazao, Dale; Cribb, Robert (March 14, 2009). "Nannies trapped in bogus jobs". Toronto Star.
12. Brazao, Dale; Cribb, Robert (April 3, 2009). "Star nannies series inspired MPP to demand action". Toronto Star.
13. Ferguson, Rob (January 10, 2011). "Ontario declares $5 million war on bedbugs". The Toronto Star.
14. "Despite Being Almost A Decade Away, Eglinton Celebrates Transit Line". National Post. June 21, 2011.
15. "Summary of Valid Ballots Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. October 6, 2011. p. 4. Retrieved 2014-03-02.
16. Rahul Gupta (2012-08-29). "Oakwood Avenue light rail station closer to reality". Inside Toronto. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. That’s the contention of local city councillor Josh Colle, who believes provincial transit planning agency Metrolinx will eventually add an Oakwood stop to the station map for the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT line scheduled for completion in 2020.
17. Rahul Gupta (2012-10-26). "Modified LRT master agreement puts Oakwood station on the map: Colle". Inside Toronto. Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Provincial Minister of Transportation Bob Chiarelli also indicated Friday in a tweet directed at Toronto Community News’ TOinTransit and Colle that an Oakwood stop on the Crosstown LRT is confirmed.
18. "General Election by District: Eglinton-Lawrence". Elections Ontario. June 12, 2014.
19. http://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/the-next-ontario/queens-park-this-week-will-new-carding-rules-make-a-difference
20. http://ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&Intranet=&BillID=3833

External links

• Official website
• Ontario Legislative Assembly Parliamentarian History