Paul Klopp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Klopp (born 1957) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995.

Klopp holds a diploma in Agricultural Business Management, and worked as a farmer before entering political life. He served as president of the Zurich Agricultural Society and the Huron County Federation of Agriculture, and was a municipal councillor in Hay Township.

He first ran for the Ontario legislature in the provincial election of 1985, but finished a distant third against Liberal Jack Riddell in the riding of Huron—Middlesex. He ran again in the provincial election of 1987 in the redistributed riding of Huron, and again finished third against Riddell.

The NDP unexpectedly won a majority government in the provincial election of 1990, and Klopp defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Ken Campbell (not to be confused with the former Social Credit leader) by 954 votes in Huron. He served as parliamentary assistant to Agriculture Minister Elmer Buchanan from 1990 to 1995, the entirety of the Rae government's tenure in office. In early 1995, he announced that Huron and Perth Counties would receive almost two million dollars in jobsOntario grants.

The NDP were defeated in the provincial election of 1995, and Klopp finished third in Huron against Progressive Conservative Helen Johns. He returned to municipal politics after his defeat, and was Deputy Mayor of Hay County until 2003. In 2003, he was once again elected a member of the Huron County Council and became Deputy Mayor of Bluewater. In early 2005, he participated in a protest of rural interest groups at Queen's Park against the government of Dalton McGuinty.

Klopp has also represented pork farming interests in Huron County. He has recently claimed that governments in Canada are trying to eliminate the family farm.