Bernard Newman (politician)

Bernard Newman (August 4, 1914—November 6, 1995) was a politician in the Canadian province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1959 to 1987, as a member of the Liberal Party.

Newman was born in Windsor, Ontario. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Assumption College at the University of Western Ontario, and began working as a secondary school teacher in 1934. He also reached the rank of Lieutenant in the Canadian Armed Forces. A star athlete in high school, Newman served as national chairman of gymnastics for the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada in 1955-56, and coached the Canadian gymnastic team at the 1956 Olympic Games, the 1958 World Games and the 1959 Pan-American Games.

Newman was elected as a Windsor alderman in 1954, and served on the city council from 1955 to 1960. He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1959 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative Roy Hicks by 1,024 votes in Windsor—Walkerville. The Progressive Conservatives won the election, and Newman served as a member of the opposition.

He was returned to the legislature by increased margins in the elections of 1963 and 1967. He was nearly defeated by New Democratic Party candidate Neil Libby in the 1971 campaign, winning by 976 votes. After this, he was re-elected by convincing margins in the elections of 1975, 1977, 1981 and 1985. During the minority parliament of 1976, he was named chair of the Procedural Affairs Committee.

Following the 1985 election, the Liberal Party ended forty-two years of Progressive Conservative government in Ontario by forming a minority administration with outside support from the NDP. After twenty-six years in opposition, Newman served as a government backbencher for his last two years in the house. He did not seek re-election in 1987.

Newman died in 1995, after being diagnosed as suffering from alzheimer's disease.

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