Denzil Minnan-Wong

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wong.

Denzil Minnan-Wong (Loudspeaker.png listen (info • help); born c. 1963)[1] is a Canadian politician. He is a Toronto city councillor. He is the person that represents Ward 16, an area of Toronto. He is a chairperson of the Employee and Labour Relations Committee in Toronto's municipal government and is also the deputy mayor of Toronto. He is also part of the board of the Toronto Transit Commission and the Toronto Hydro.[2]

Denzil Minnan-Wong
Denzil Minnan-Wong speaks to reporters - 2012 (cropped).jpg
Minnan-Wong in 2012
12th Deputy Mayor of Toronto
Assumed office
1 December 2014
Preceded byNorm Kelly
Toronto City Councillor for (Ward 16) Don Valley East
Assumed office
1 December 2000
Preceded byArea created
Toronto City Councillor for (Ward 16) Don Valley East
In office
1 January 1998 – 1 December 2000
Preceded byArea created
Succeeded byArea abolished
Chair of the North York Community Council
In office
1 January 2004 – 21 May 2005
Preceded byGiorgio Mammoliti
Succeeded byMaria Augimeri
Personal details
Born1963/1964 (age 59–60)
NationalityCanadian
Spouse(s)Colleen
Children3
ResidenceToronto, Ontario, Canada
OccupationLawyer

In 2018, he ran for election in the 2018 Ontario election in Don Valley East. He represented the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.[3]

City politics

Minnan-Wong first got into city politics in 1994. This was when one of the councillors of North York, Barry Burton, died of cancer. The city council made him a temporary councillor.[3] After that, in the elections later that year, he was elected in.[4] In the 1997 elections, he was elected to the new city council. This was after the amalgamation of Toronto.[5]

In 2011, he supported outsourcing garbage collection. His plan was to outsource garbage collection in the western part of Toronto. This saved the Toronto government $12 million a year.[6] He also supported adding bike lanes to the streets of downtown Toronto. He opposed creating bike lanes before learning how to ride a bike.[7] This created several bike lanes in downtown Toronto.[8][9] Afterwards, Minnan-Wong helped get Bixi, a bike sharing company, to become operated by the Toronto Parking Authority. This was because Bixi was in debt.[10][11]

In December 2010, the Toronto City Council put him on the TTC board of directors.[12] He was one of the five people that voted to fire Gary Webster in 2012, who was the General Manager of the TTC. After the firing of Webster, the five people were removed from the TTC Board. They were removed because many of the councillors did not agree with Rob Ford.[13][14] In 2014 he was put back on the TTC board after John Tory was elected as mayor.[15][16]

After the provincial election, Minnan-Wong ran for councillor again in the 2018 municipal election. He ran in the new Ward 16 Don Valley East. Before the 2018 election, the Government of Ontario made the number of councillors in the Toronto City Council smaller. He defeated a former politician, David Caplan.[17]

In 2014, John Tory made him one of the deputy mayors of Toronto.[18][19]

Provincial politics

Minnan-Wong got into provincial politics for a short amount of time. On 20 January 2018, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario announced that he would be their candidate for Don Valley East.[20] In the Ontario election, he did not win and instead was second in amount of votes. The person that beat him was the Liberal politician Michael Coteau.[3]

Personal life

Minnan-Wong's father is Denzil Minnan-Wong, Sr. Minnan-Wong, Sr. was a Chinese immigrant that became a well-known member of the Progressive Conservative Party. He went to university at Osgoode Hall Law School. After this, he became a lawyer that would deal with immigration problems.

Minnan-Wong lives in Toronto. He is married and has three children.

References

  1. Lu, Vanessa (15 June 2009). "City Hall's car guy learns to ride". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  2. "Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong". City of Toronto. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 D'Andrea, Aaron (7 June 2018). "Liberals' veteran Michael Coteau defeats city councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong in Don Valley East". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  4. "1994 Toronto general election results (former Metropolitan Toronto)". City of Toronto. Archived from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  5. "1997 Toronto general election results". City of Toronto. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  6. "Toronto has saved $11.9M through private garbage pickup". CBC News. 16 December 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  7. McGrath, John Michael (7 January 2011). "Car-loving councillor Minnan-Wong wants to bring better bike lanes to Toronto—wait, what?". Toronto Life. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  8. Del Giallo, Sarah (26 September 2012). "Q&A: Denzil Minnan-Wong talks about the importance of separated bike lanes". National Post. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  9. Peat, Don (30 July 2014). "New bike lanes open on Richmond, Adelaide". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  10. Dhillon, Sunny (10 June 2013). "Toronto unveils new separated bike lane on Sherbourne Street". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  11. Doolittle, Robyn (4 December 2013). "Bixi bike-share program to pedal forward under a new name". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  12. Moloney, Paul (8 December 2010). "Ford's picks named to police board". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  13. Kalinowski, Tess (7 March 2012). "Eglinton LRT first up at new TTC board". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  14. Church, Elizabeth (5 March 2012). "Mayor loses as TTC board restructured". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  15. Minnan-Wong, Denzil (3 December 2014). "Recommended appointments to committees and boards" (PDF). Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  16. Spurr, Ben (4 December 2014). "Veteran progressive councillors left out in the cold by John Tory". NOW Toronto. Retrieved 1 November 2018.[dead link]
  17. Powell, Betsy (22 October 2018). "Denzil Minnan-Wong gets another term in Ward 16, Don Valley East". The Toronto Star. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  18. "John Tory to appoint Denzil Minnan-Wong deputy mayor". CityNews. 30 November 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  19. "John Tory picks next Toronto deputy mayor, executive committee". CBC News. 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  20. Fox, Chris (20 January 2018). "Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong acclaimed as PC candidate for Don Valley East". CP24. Retrieved 2 November 2018.

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