- David Caplan
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David Caplan MPP for Don Valley East In office
1999–2011Preceded by New riding Succeeded by Michael Coteau MPP for Oriole In office
1997–1999Preceded by Elinor Caplan Succeeded by riding abolished Minister of Health and Long-Term Care In office
June 20, 2008 – October 7, 2009Preceded by George Smitherman Succeeded by Deborah Matthews Personal details Born November 15, 1964
Toronto, OntarioPolitical party Liberal Spouse(s) Leigh Caplan Children 2 Profession Real estate agent David Caplan (born November 15, 1964) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. He is not re-offering and will be retiring from the Ontario legislature at the October 6 provincial election.[1]
Caplan is the son of Elinor Caplan, who served as a cabinet minister at the federal and provincial levels. His father, Wilfred Caplan, was also a politician. He is married to Leigh and has two sons, Benjamin and Jacob.
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Background
Caplan was born in Toronto, Ontario, and was educated at the University of Western Ontario. He worked as a commercial real estate agent with the firm of Ernest Goodman Ltd. from 1985 to 1989, and was Vice-President of Taurus Metal Trading Ltd. (a recycling company) between 1989 and 1992.
Caplan was elected as a trustee to the North York Board of Education in 1991 and served in this capacity for six years, becoming the Board's Vice-Chair in 1993. He also served on the Metro Toronto Board of Education from 1994 to 1997, becoming its Vice-Chair shortly before his departure for higher office.
Political career
In 1997, Elinor Caplan resigned her seat in the Ontario legislature to seek election to the Canadian House of Commons. David Caplan contested his mother's former riding of Oriole in the subsequent by-election, and defeated his Progressive Conservative opponent, former federal Member of Parliament Barbara Greene, by a significant margin. He subsequently served as the Liberal critic for Youth and Training.
Ontario's electoral map was significantly altered in 1996, when Progressive Conservative Premier Mike Harris introduced a bill to reduce the number of members in the legislature from 130 to 103. These changes did not apply to by-elections for the sitting legislature, but came into effect for the provincial election of 1999. As a result, Caplan was forced to face another incumbent Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), Minister of Education David Johnson, in the new riding of Don Valley East. Johnson had surprised many observers by not running in the safer riding of Don Valley West.
In one of the most closely watched races of the campaign, Caplan defeated Johnson on election night by just over 3,000 votes. There are several public school teachers in Don Valley East, and many suspect that "strategic voting" by this group against the Tories was a leading factor in Caplan's victory. The Progressive Conservatives won the election, and Caplan became his party's Housing Critic and Deputy Whip.
Like his mother, David Caplan is a prominent politician in the Jewish community of the North York area. He did not, however, join with several other politicians from this community (including fellow Liberal MPP Monte Kwinter) to support provincial funding for non-Catholic religious schools in 2001. The initiative was brought forward by the Progressive Conservative government of Mike Harris, and the Liberal Party opposed it on the grounds that it would divert money from public schools. While Kwinter publicly disagreed with his party's position, Caplan supported it and referred to the Harris government's plan as "the first step toward a voucher system".
2003 session
Caplan was easily re-elected in Don Valley East in the provincial election of 2003, defeating his Progressive Conservative opponent, former city councillor Paul Sutherland, by over 9200 votes. The Liberals won the general election, and Caplan was appointed to Cabinet on October 23, 2003 as Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal.
Caplan was responsible for leading the modernization of the province's infrastructure and planning for future population and economic growth. He released a long-term $30 billion plus infrastructure investment strategy called ReNew Ontario, which used a private financing model expanding and building new hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, and transit and transportation systems. Caplan was responsible for the Places to Grow Act, 2005, which allows for a better way of accommodating growth across the province through the development of growth plans. The first growth plan under this legislation, the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, was a 25-year strategy to maximize the benefits of growth and maintain a high quality of life for the fastest growing urban region in Canada. Minister Caplan also had responsibility for several major government agencies managing public assets, including: The Ontario Realty Corporation, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Infrastructure Ontario and the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation.
Caplan came under heavy criticism after the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation was mired in a scandal which saw retailers were winning a disproportionate number of jackpots. He stayed on despite opposition calls for his resignation.[2]
After a cabinet shuffle on June 29, 2005, Caplan was given the additional position of Deputy Government House Leader.
2007 session
On June 20, 2008, Premier Dalton McGuity announced a cabinet shuffle that saw Caplan swapping portfolios with George Smitherman. Caplan was appointed Minister of Health, while Smitherman was appointed both the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal and the Minister of Energy (taking over from Gerry Phillips). There was criticism of Caplan's new portfolio, as he suffered from weight issues and was formerly a heavy smoker, but he dismissed it, saying "My own conversations between me and my doctor are private matters, (as) they are for all of us, and they'll remain private".[2]
In May 2009, there were opposition calls for Caplan's resignation after it was revealed that eHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer had approved about $4.8 million in no-bid contracts during the first four months of the agency's operation, while also spending $50000 to refurnish her office, and paying consultants up to $300 an hour. Nine senior eHealth employees were fired, reportedly for challenging the agency's tendering practices. eHealth Ontario argued that the no-bid contracts were necessary due to the rapid transition process to eHealth from its predecessor Smart Systems for Health Agency, while Caplan defended Kramer's bonus as part of her move from another agency. The opposition noted that the McGuinty government spent five years and $647 million on the Smart Systems for Health Agency, which used 15 per cent of its $225 million annual budget on consultants despite employing 166 people with annual salaries exceeding $100,000, before the project was shut down and restarted as eHealth Ontario. Premier Dalton McGuinty said he was concerned about eHealth's spending information and said that he would act upon the auditor general's report. McGuinty and Caplan said that it was tough to recruit top experts to build a provincewide electronic health records system.[3][4]
On October 6, 2009, Caplan resigned his post as Health Minister in advance of a report detailing irregularities in spending and expense accounts related to eHealth Ontario, a government agency tasked with the creation of electronic health records.[5]
He announced on July 14, 2011 that he would not be a candidate in the October 6, 2011 provincial election.[1]
Electoral record
Ontario general election, 2007 Party Candidate Votes % ±% Liberal David Caplan 19,602 55.6 Progressive Conservative Angela Kennedy 8,821 25.0 New Democrat Mary Trapani Hynes 3,757 10.7 Green Trifon Haitas 2,300 6.5 Independent Stella Kargiannakis 467 1.3 Family Coalition Ryan Kidd 196 0.6 Freedom Wayne simmons 98 0.3 Ontario general election, 2003 Party Candidate Votes % ±% Liberal David Caplan 21,327 56.8 +6.30 Progressive Conservative Paul Sutherland 12,027 32.03 -11.16 New Democrat Murphy Browne 3,058 8.14 +3.76 Green Dan Craig 558 1.49 +1.29 Family Coalition Ryan Kidd 460 1.23 +0.86 Freedom Wayne Simmons 119 0.32 +0.19 Ontario general election, 1999 Party Candidate Votes % Liberal David Caplan 20,993 50.5 Progressive Conservative David Johnson 17,955 43.19 New Democrat Janaki Bala-Krishnan 1,822 4.38 Independent Raffi Assadourian 329 0.79 Family Coalition Ryan Kidd 153 0.37 Communist Elizabeth Rowley 91 0.22 Green Jeff Pancer 85 0.20 Independent Fernand Deschamps 65 0.16 Freedom Wayne Simmons 53 0.13 Natural Law Shail Lall 28 0.07 Ontario provincial by-election, September 4, 1997 : Oriole edit Party Candidate Votes % Liberal David Caplan 9,954 Progressive Conservative Barbara Greene 5,163 New Democrat Jim Kafieh 1,700 Independent Bernadette Michael 132 Green Shelly Lipsey 96 References
External links
Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty Cabinet Posts (2) Predecessor Office Successor George Smitherman Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
2007-2009Deborah Matthews New Ministry Minister of Infrastructure
Minister Responsible for the OLGC
2003-2007George Smitherman Categories:- 1964 births
- Jewish Canadian politicians
- Ontario Liberal Party MPPs
- Members of the Executive Council of Ontario
- People from Toronto
- University of Western Ontario alumni
- Living people
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