Bruce McCaffrey
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Bruce Robert McCaffrey (September 23, 1938 – August 9, 2002) was a politician in the Canadian province of Ontario. Born in South Porcupine, Ontario, McCaffrey served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1977 to 1987 as a Progressive Conservative, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Bill Davis. His widow, Deb Matthews, is a current member of the Ontario Legislature, representing London North Centre for the Ontario Liberal Party.
McCaffrey was educated at the University of Toronto. He worked as a teacher, and then entered the investment business. He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1977 provincial election, defeating Liberal candidate Des Newman in the Toronto riding of Armourdale. Easily returned in the 1981 campaign, he was appointed to Davis's government as a minister without portfolio on April 10, 1981.
McCaffrey was promoted to Minister of Citizenship and Culture on February 13, 1982, and then to Provincial Secretary for Social Development on July 6, 1983. He also served as Minister of Community and Social Services from September 29 to November 21, 1983. He resigned from cabinet for health reasons on December 23, 1983.
McCaffrey supported Larry Grossman at the Progressive Conservative Party's leadership convention of February 1985. Grossman lost to Frank Miller on the final ballot, and McCaffrey was not appointed to Miller's cabinet.
The Progressive Conservative Party, which had governed Ontario since 1943, was reduced to a precarious minority government in the 1985 provincial election. McCaffrey was narrowly re-elected in Armourdale, defeating Liberal Gino Matrundola by only 122 votes. Following the election, he publicly called on Miller to resign as party leader. Miller resigned before the year was over, and Grossman was chosen to take his place in November.
McCaffrey did not seek re-election in the 1987 campaign. After leaving politics, he entered graduate studies at the University of Western Ontario.
He was known as one of the most energetic members of the legislature, and often attended sessions wearing casual attire. He died in 2002 after a very brief illness, shortly after completing the requirements for a Master of Arts degree in history. The Department of History at the University of Western Ontario now operates a Bruce McCaffrey Memorial Graduate Student Seminar Series.
