|
Tom Manley' is one of three co-Deputy Leaders of the Green Party of Canada, and the leading candidate for its next Leader.
Biography
Tom Manley was born in 1960 in Berwick, Ontario. He has a BSc from the Collège Militaire Royal, in St-Jean Québec. He lives with Isabelle Masson, his partner of 13 years. He has one son, Yannick, 24 years old, attending Carleton University.
Tom Manley grew up on a family farm. His early school years were in French, his high school was bilingual and his university training rotated between French and English. During his youth Manley served as the president of the Liberal Party of Ontario Youth Association in his riding. After college, Manley lived in Saskatchewan for a year, in Québec for 16 years and again in Ontario for the past 7 years.
Manley comes from a political family. The late Peter Manley, his grandfather and a successful dairy farmer in Berwick, served as a Ontario Liberal Party MPP for 12 years in the 1950's and 1960's following a long involvement in municipal politics and community organizations.
Tom Manley developed his management and business skills with Bell Canada in Montréal. He worked as a telecommunications sales engineer and engineering manager. His claim to fame came as the project leader in the development and launch of the Bell Sympatico Internet Services system.
Politics
Starting as the sole Green Party member in his local riding of Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry (http://www.greensofsdg.ca) for two years. He founded the local provincial and federal Green Party associations in 2003. He obtained 2090 votes or 5.5% in the provincial election of October 2003, ranking 8th among the highest returns of the Ontario Green Party candidates. He finished third, ahead of the NDP, in the local race where voters had never seen a Green candidate before. His grassroots campaign style attracted dozens of new Green party members from across the political spectrum. Manley completed the race with significant enough funds and contributions to conduct a thorough campaign.
The Green Party of Canada council appointed Manley as Agriculture and Food Advocate, the first member of the GPC Shadow Cabinet, in 2004. Manley gained a significant amount of media attention from the agricultural sector for his credible suggestions on how to confront and properly address the problems facing the rural economy and farming in Canada. Manley also gained considerable respect for facing down other party advocates and traditional Green Party paradigms regarding the national agriculture debate. His recent federal campaign in Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry (http://www.greensofsdg.ca) brought in 3450 votes, 7.25% locally, ranking 5th amongst the highest returns for Green candidates in Ontario
The Leadership Campaign
In July 2004, Manley launched a campaign to become the next leader of the GPC. He ran a close second in a three-way race for the Leadership against current leader Jim Harris (politician) and party activist John Grogan in the August 2004 contest held shortly after the June Canadian federal election, 2004, in which the Party quadrupled its popular vote. Manley received about 37% of the Party's vote, but only about 28% of members voted. Manley credits his strong showing to an active summer campaign travelling the country and meeting the party members. His campaign platform focused on building the party's internal capacity and refining credible green policies around sustainability.
Other Activities
Manley runs Homestead Organics (http://www.homesteadorganics.ca), Ontarios leading organic farm service & supply business with organic livestock feed, grain processing for food markets, organic farm inputs, & gardening supplies.
For 6 years, he has chaired the Ottawa Chapter of Canadian Organic Growers (http://www.cog.ca/ottawa). For 5 years, he has chaired Eco Farm Day (http://www.cog.ca/ottawa), a large scale organic farmers conference in eastern Ontario. He is also an active member of the National Farmers Union (http://www.nfu.ca) and the [Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (http://www.efao.ca).
| 
