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David James Ramsay (born April 23, 1948 in Sydney, Australia) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is lived in Canada since 1949, having been adopted by parents in Montreal at age one.
Ramsay was raised in Oakville, Ontario. He attended Concordia University in Montreal, and after graduation worked as a farmer in New Liskeard and a clerk-treasurer in Casey Township, in northern Ontario. In 1977, he briefly joined the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario to support a friend's bid for the party's nomination. He later served as President of the Timiskaming Federation of Agriculture in 1984-85, was a founding member of the Timiskaming Grain Growers Board, and served as Chair of the Timiskaming Hospital Board for a time.
Ramsay was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1985 Ontario election as an MPP for the Ontario New Democratic Party, representing the riding of Timiskaming. He defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative Ed Havrot by almost 3000 votes, as the once-powerful Tory machine in northern Ontario began to lose its support base. On October 6, 1986 he crossed the floor to join the governing Liberals, claiming that northern Ontario needed greater representation in government. (Ramsay also seems to have disliked the Toronto leadership of the NDP, describing it as of touch with his rural/populist base.)
Despite an intense effort by the NDP to defeat Ramsay in the 1987 Ontario election, he won re-election by over 4000 votes and was appointed to Liberal Premier David Peterson's cabinet. On September 29, 1987, Ramsay became Ontario Minister of Correctional Services Following a cabinet shuffle on August 2, 1989, he was named Ontario Minister of Agriculture and Food. Ramsay kept his seat in the 1990 Ontario election that defeated the Liberal government and brought Ramsay's former party, the NDP, to power under Bob Rae.
He ran for the leadership of the Liberal Party in the 1992 Ontario Liberal leadership convention, but placed last in a field of six candidates. Like fellow candidate Greg Sorbara, his campaign included both right-wing and left-wing elements. He supported tax reduction (including lower gasoline taxes, a reduction in the Provincial Sales Tax and a one-year moratorium on the federal Goods and Services Tax), and favoured open Sunday shopping and allowing corner stores to sell beer and wine. He also supported pay equity measures, and described himself as pro-choice on abortion.
Ramsay served as Chair of the Caucus from 1993 to 1994 and again from 1999 to 2003. In the provincial elections of 1995 and 1999, his primary opposition came not from the New Democrats but the Progressive Conservatives, whose leader Mike Harris represented a riding next to Ramsay's. He was nevertheless able to win by a clear margin on both occasions.
With the victory of the Liberals under the leadership of Dalton McGuinty in the 2003 Ontario election, Ramsay returned to cabinet as Ontario Minister of Natural Resources on October 23, 2003. He is regarded by many as the most powerful spokesman for northern Ontario in the provincial cabinet.
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