Paul Dewar

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**Paul W. Dewar**


Incumbent
Riding	Ottawa Centre
In office since	2006 election
Preceded by	Ed Broadbent
Born	January 25, 1963 Ottawa, Ontario
Residence	Ottawa
Political party	New Democratic Party
Profession(s)	Labour and social activist, teacher, union officer
Religion	United Church of Canada
Spouse	Julia Sneyd

Paul W. Dewar (born January 25, 1963 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian NDP Member of Parliament, teacher and former elected representative of the Ottawa Carleton Elementary School Teachers' Federation. In the 2006 federal election, Dewar defeated the Liberal candidate, lawyer Richard Mahoney, by over 5,000 votes in Ottawa Centre, an urban riding in Ontario.

The son of former Ottawa mayor, Marion Dewar, Paul Dewar won the New Democratic Party (NDP) nomination in Ottawa Centre on June 22, 2005. The Ottawa Centre riding had been held by the NDP's Ed Broadbent who did not seek re-election so he could care for his ailing wife. Dewar defeated 1997 Ottawa Centre candidate Jamey Heath, lawyer Tiffani Murray and Ottawa Citizen columnist Shannon Lee Mannion for the nomination on the first ballot.

Dewar had previously run for the NDP federal nomination in Ottawa Centre in 2004, losing to Ed Broadbent. Dewar proceeded to volunteer on Broadbent's successful 2004 election campaign, playing a major role in organizing the NDP election day effort.

Dewar has been a teacher since 1997, teaching at D. Roy Kennedy Elementary School and Hopewell Elementary School. He won the A. Lorne Cassidy Award for work with children with special needs. Dewar was also the Vice President of the Ottawa Carleton Elementary School Teachers' Federation and helped establish the teachers' Humanity Fund, providing donations to projects in developing countries.

Paul Dewar

While in the past, the Ottawa teachers' federation has endorsed candidates or slates of candidates, Dewar was the only candidate they endorsed in 2006. (Dewar turned down a contribution by their provincial office, preferring to rely on funds donated locally and by individuals.) At the end of the 2006 election campaign, the teachers' political action committee was chastised by Lorne Rachlis, director of education at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board for using the board's intranet e-mail list to inform 119 teachers about the endorsement. Federation president Lisa Falls told the Ottawa Citizen, "Certainly, the political action committee takes responsibility for the communications it puts out." The e-mail list is regularly used by the political action committee to update members on its decisions. Falls said it was the committee's mistake to name a candidate in the e-mail and hoped their oversight would not detract from Dewar's campaign since "He's such a great advocate for kids." Dewar did not know about the e-mail and said that, if he had known, he would have "intuitively" advised against using the board's intranet to send it. [1]

In 2002, Dewar organized a Community Forum on Public Education. He was actively involved with the Coalition for a Healthy Ottawa and the Partnership for a Pesticide Bylaw. He served on the board of the Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization and is active with the First United Church, Old Ottawa East Community Association and Fair Vote Canada. He was employed as constituency assistant to Evelyn Gigantes, when she was Ottawa Centre NDP Member of Provincial Parliament from 1990 to 1995.

Dewar is married to Julia Sneyd and has two children. He earned a Bachelor of Education degree from Queen's University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton University in political science and economics.