Bruck Easton
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Bruck Easton is a Windsor, Ontario lawyer and a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. He is a former president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Easton was a candidate for the PCs in the 2000 federal election in the riding of Windsor—St. Clair.
Born and raised in Windsor, Easton is married to Carol Kosowan and is the father of six children. Easton graduated from Carleton University in 1975 and completed his law degree at the University of Ottawa in 1978. Easton has practised law since 1980 in the areas of commercial, estate and taxation law.
Bruck Easton has served as chairman of the Windsor Harbour Commission and board member of the Detroit Windsor Port Corporation, the Windsor Chamber of Commerce, the Windsor Essex County Development Commission, and the Essex County Bar Association. From 1991 to 1994 Bruck was a member of Windsor's "Save Our Station" CBC committee and was instrumental in reversing the CBC's decision to end local programming on CBET. Easton was a member of the board of trustees of the Cleary International Centre from 1989 to 1991 and chair of the Cleary Fund which raised more than $5 million for the reconstruction of the Cleary International Centre. From 1983 to 1987 he served with the Friends of the Court, a heritage group dedicated to the restoration of Mackenzie Hall, Windsor's historic courthouse. He was a charter member of Preserve Walkerville, the grass-roots organization which in 1995 saved the Old Walkerville Town Hall from demolition.
Bruck Easton ran for Parliament as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Windsor-St. Clair in the 1997 election and the 2000 election, placing third in both races. In its later years, the PC Party's ruling council was faced by several presidential resignations and defections. Easton was eventually selected in late 2000 to be the party's president after the resignation of former PC Party president Peter Van Loan. Easton retained his place as PC president until the party's amalgamation with the Canadian Alliance in 2003. Easton supported the leadership aspirations of Tony Clement and became disaffected with the new Conservative Party of Canada after Stephen Harper was elected leader. During the June 2004 federal election Easton announced that he would vote for the Liberal candidate in Windsor-St Clair stating:
"My concern is that Mr. Harper's party is neither socially progressive nor fiscally conservative. Over the course of this campaign, I have been disturbed by the positions taken by Mr. Harper and his party on social issues ranging from Charter rights to bilingualism, from our environmental problems to the need for support for cities."
Easton announced on November 23, 2005 that he would run as a Liberal in the 2006 election in the riding of Windsor—Tecumseh which replaced Windsor-St. Clair in redistribution. He did so, and lost to the NDP incumbent Joe Comartin.