Liberal Party candidates, 1977 Ontario provincial election

The Ontario Liberal Party, ran a full slate of candidates in the 1977 provincial election, and elected thirty-four candidates to emerge as the Official Opposition in the provincial legislature. Many of the party's candidates have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here.

=Joe E. Bugelli (Durham West)=

Bugelli was born in Zabbar, Malta on July 20, 1947, and moved to Canada with his family in 1963. He was educated at Durham College, George Brown College and the University of Waterloo. He finished third against Progressive Conservative candidate George Ashe in the 1977 election. Bugelli was elected to the Whitby Town Council in 1978, and was re-elected in 1980, 1982, 1985 and 1988. He also served for five years on the Board of Directors of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

During the early 1980s, Bugelli attempted to prevent body-rub parlours from opening in the city. [Ian Sutton, "Body-rub parlours restricted", "Toronto Star", 10 March 1981, A18.] He later worked to restrict strip clubs from the community in 1987, [Stan Josey, "Bylaw will restrict Whitby strip clubs", "Toronto Star", 29 September 1987, E2.] and tried to quash a bar-laundromat combination from opening in the city two years later. [Paul Irish and Nicolaas van Rijn, "Councillor tries to quash bid for bar-laundromat", "Toronto Star", 17 March 1989, A7.] Bugelli also attempted to shut down home-operated businesses in 1984, describing them as disruptive to the community. ["New bylaw would ban Whitby home businesses", "Toronto Star', 14 February 1984, ES02.]

Bugelli served as chair of the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority for eleven years. ["Destruction of Corbett Creek must stop" [letter] , "Toronto Star", 19 July 1988, E4.] He brought forward a plan in 1989 to subdivide the authority's surplus land, and sell individual lots for profit. He argued that the land in question was "high and dry and of no environmental concern", and accused the city of Oshawa of trying to stall the plan for selfish purposes. [Donovan Vincent, "Authority takes Oshawa to OMB", "Toronto Star", 11 January 1990, E1.]

In 1990, Bugelli brought forward a successful motion to abolish parking fees in municipal lots. This followed passage of a provincial law which required Whitby to pay more in taxes for charging fees than it anticipated to receive collecting them. [Daniel Girard, "Whitby removes parking fee", "Toronto Star", 11 January 1990, E5.]

Bugelli left town council in 1991 to campaign for a seat on the Durham Regional Separate School Board. He was elected as a Whitby representative, and chaired the board's finance committee. He avoided imposing major layoffs in 1994, at a time when 132 positions were cut in the public system. [Stan Josey, "Teaching jobs left secure in Catholic board budget", "Toronto Star", 19 May 1994.] In 1992, he opposed a motion to remove the oath of allegiance to the Queen from the swearing-in ceremony. [Valerie Hill, "Option sought for oath to Queen", "Toronto Star", 19 March 1992, SD1.] He did not seek re-election in 1994.

Bugelli was the president and chief executive officer of Computer Composition of Canada Inc. during the 1980s, and remained a prominent with the company after it was bought by MDI Corporation of Toronto in 1989. ["MDC ACQUIRES COMPUTER COMPOSITION" [news release] , "Canada NewsWire", 7 March 1989, 09:15 report.] He was subsequently appointed president and chief executive officer of Pro-Image Corporation in York, Pennsylvania. [ [http://www.searchmalta.com/surnames/bugelli/index.shtml Search Malta: History of Bugelli] , accessed 27 October 2006.]

=Richard (Rick) Meagher (Oakwood)=

Meagher is a Toronto lawyer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Francis Xavier University (1966) and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University, and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1971. [ [http://www.lawyers.com/Ontario/Toronto/Lang-Michener-LLP-1332363-f.html Firm profile for Lang Michener LLP] , accessed 7 September 2006.]

He first campaigned for the Ontario legislature in 1975 at age thirty-one, after winning the Oakwood Liberal nomination over Norman Kert and Marvin Gordon. ["Lawyer to run for Liberals in Oakwood", "Toronto Star", 25 June 1975, A6.] He argued for an increase in workers compensation rates, and opposed extension of the Spadina Expressway. [Kent Potter, "3 parties claim they lead in Oakwood", "Toronto Star", 10 September 1975, A11.]

He represented Conrad Black during a property dispute in 1978. [James Jefferson, "Post Road saved from $450,000 'cheapies'", "Globe and Mail", 9 May 1978, P1.] In 2005, he became a partner with the firm Lang Michener LLP. ["Lang Michener bulks up", "Globe and Mail", 7 March 2005, B12.]

Footnotes