Bruce Crozier
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Bruce Crozier is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is currently a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the riding of Essex for the Ontario Liberal Party.
Crozier is a Certified General Accountant. He worked for the H.J. Heinz Company for eleven years, and was the Vice-President of Finance and Secretary-Treasurer for Bennie Lumber and Building Materials Ltd.. He was also the National Director of the Kinsman Club from 1975 to 1976, and is a Life Member of the Leamington Kinsman Club.
He was elected to the Leamington city council in 1985, and later served as the town's Mayor from 1988 to 1993. He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in a by-election in on December 2, 1993 in the riding of Essex South, held after longtime Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Remo Mancini announced his resignation from the legislature. He won this election very easily, defeating his nearest opponent (Progressive Conservative candidate Joan Flood) by almost 10,000 votes, amid fewer than 20,000 cast.
Crozier was re-elected in the 1995 provincial election, defeating his nearest opponent by almost 9000 votes on this occasion. The Progressive Conservatives won the election, and Crozier joined 29 other Liberals in the official opposition. He supported Dwight Duncan for the party leadership in 1996, and gave his support to Dalton McGuinty after Duncan was eliminated.
Crozier was re-elected in the 1999 election by over 10,000 votes in the redistributed riding of Essex, though again the Progressive Conservatives formed government at the provincial level.
His margin of victory was actually reduced in the 2003 provincial election, which the Liberals won in a landslide. He faced a strong challenge from New Democrat Pat Hayes, who supplanted the Tories for a second-place finish. He was not appointed to Cabinet, but was named as the Legislature's Deputy Speaker on December 8, 2003. Many believed that Crozier was to be chosen as speaker when the assembly reconvened in 2005, replacing Alvin Curling. Instead, Liberal Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Brown ascended to that position.
Crozier bears a passing resemblance to former Liberal Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, and has frequently highlighted this connection by wearing bow-ties (for which Pearson was famous) in the Ontario legislature.
