James K. Gordon

Infobox_Politician


name = Jim Gordon
small| caption =
birth_date = March 6, 1937
birth_place = Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec
residence =
office1 = Mayor of Sudbury, Ontario
term_start1 = 1976
term_end1 = 1981
predecessor1 = Joe Fabbro
successor1 = Maurice Lamoureux
office2 = MPP for Sudbury
term_start2 = 1981
term_end2 = 1987
predecessor2 = Bud Germa
successor2 = Sterling Campbell
office3 = Mayor of Sudbury, Ontario
term_start3 = 1991
term_end3 = December 31, 2000
predecessor3 = Peter Wong
successor3 = last mayor pre-amalgamation
office4 = Mayor of Greater Sudbury
term_start4 = January 1, 2001
term_end4 = 2003
predecessor4 = first mayor
successor4 = David Courtemanche
party = Progressive Conservative
religion =
occupation = teacher

James K. (Jim) Gordon (born March 6, 1937 in Noranda, Quebec) is a Canadian politician, who served as mayor of Sudbury, Ontario for seventeen years, and as the city's Member of Provincial Parliament for six years.

Gordon served on the town council of Espanola, Ontario in the 1960s before moving to Sudbury. He was elected to city council there in 1971, and became mayor in 1976. He served until 1981, and ran in that year's provincial election as the Progressive Conservative candidate in the Sudbury constituency. He won that election, and served as a backbench supporter of Bill Davis's government. Gordon supported Larry Grossman at the Progressive Conservative Party's leadership convention of February 1985.

Gordon was a cabinet minister in the short-lived government of Frank Miller, serving as Minister of Government Services from May 17 to June 26, 1985. He was not able to accomplish anything of significance before Miller's government was defeated in the house.

He served in the legislature until 1987, when he was defeated by Sterling Campbell in the Liberal sweep of David Peterson.

In 1991, Gordon ran again as mayor of Sudbury, and defeated incumbent mayor Peter Wong. He served as the city's mayor until 2000, when the city and the Regional Municipality of Sudbury were amalgamated into the new city of Greater Sudbury. He ran for mayor of the new amalgamated city in the 2000 municipal election, and won that election as well.

Gordon's tenure as mayor of Sudbury was marked by efforts to diversify the city's mining-based economy. As the city's provincial representative in the early 1980s, he was also a key supporter of the Science North project, which has since become the city's and Northern Ontario's most successful tourist attraction.

In Gordon's single term as mayor of the amalgamated Greater Sudbury, however, the city council was somewhat undermined by voter doubts about the effectiveness and the appropriateness of the amalgamation project. Gordon announced his retirement from politics in 2003, and in that fall's municipal election, he was succeeded by David Courtemanche.