John Sola
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John Domagoj Sola (born April 15, 1944 in Zagreb, Croatia) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1995. Originally a Liberal, he was forced to leave his party amid controversy.
Sola has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. In 1976-77, he was the president of the Toronto Metro-Croatia Soccer Team.
Sola was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1987 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative incumbent Bud Gregory by almost 6,000 votes. The Liberal Party won a landslide majority government under the leadership of David Peterson, and Sola served as a government backbencher for the next three years.
The Liberals were unexpectedly defeated by the New Democratic Party in the 1990 provincial election, although Sola retained his seat by more than 3,000 votes against an NDP challenger. In opposition, he was appointed as the Liberal critic for the Chair of the Management Board of Cabinet.
Sola's political career was ended by a scandal which had nothing to do with his legislative responsibilities. In late 1991, shortly after the beginning of Yugoslavia's civil wars, Sola gave an interview with the television program the fifth estate about tensions between Canada's Serbian and Croatian communities. In the course of the interview, Sola said "I don't think I'd be able to live next door to a Serb". This statement provoked significant controversy.
In 1992, Sola was a supporter of Steve Mahoney during the leadership convention of the Ontario Liberal Party. After Mahoney was eliminated, Sola placed his support behind Lyn McLeod, the eventual winner. As McLeod defeated runner-up Murray Elston by nine votes, Sola was seen as key to that victory as he personally delivered most of Mahoney's Canadian-Croatian delegates to McLeod.
Controversy followed Sola in 1993 when he was taped giving an address to students at York University. In his address he condemned Serbian-Canadians for not speaking out against atrocities being committed against Croats and Muslims in the former Yugoslavia, essentially declaring that by their silence they supported genocide and ethnic cleansing. Though Sola issued an apology in the Ontario Legislature, McLeod expelled Sola from the Ontario Liberal Party Caucus on May 11, 1993.
Sola played only a minor role in the assembly after his expulsion from the Liberal Party, and did not seek re-election in 1995.
