Mike Farnan
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Michael Liam Farnan (born January 29, 1941 in Dublin, Ireland) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1995, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.
Farnan was educated at University College in Dublin, the National University of Dublin, the University of London in England and McGill University in Montreal. He has a Master's Degree in Education, and worked as a primary and secondary school teacher in London, Montreal and Cambridge, Ontario for twenty-seven years. A devout Roman Catholic working within Ontario's separate school system, he served as provincial director of the Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association for a time, as well as participating in a variety of community outreach projects in Cambridge.
Farnan ran for the federal New Democratic Party in Cambridge during the 1980 federal election, and finished a strong second against Progressive Conservative Chris Speyer. He also served on the Cambridge city council for the period in the 1980s.
Farnan was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1987 provincial election, defeating Liberal candidate Claudette Millar in the provincial riding of Cambridge (incumbent Progressive Conservative Bill Barlow finished third). The NDP were the official opposition in this period, and Farnan served as his party's critic for Correctional Services and Tourism and Recreation.
The NDP won an unexpected majority government in the 1990 provincial election, and Farnan was re-elected by a landslide in Cambridge. On October 1, 1990, he was appointed as the Rae government's first Solicitor-General and Minister of Correctional Services.
As Solicitor-General, Farnan introduced employment equity provisions for Ontario's police force and established a "common pause day" which continued the province's previous restrictions on Sunday shopping. He also became involved in a controversy concerning two letters which had been sent from his staff to Justices of the Peace in Ontario, one of which requested the review of a case. This was seen by some as inappropriate interference from his office, and while Farnan did not write the letters himself, he was nonetheless dropped from cabinet on July 31, 1991. He served as a Deputy Speaker in the house for the next two years.
On June 17, 1993, was re-appointed as a junior minister without portfolio responsible for Education and Training. In this capacity, he served as an assistant to Minister of Education Dave Cooke.
Farnan returned to a full cabinet position on October 21, 1994, having been appointed Minister of Transportation. He supported a policy of publishing the names of truck safety violators in northern Ontario, despite opposition from many in the industry.
In 1994, Farnan was one of two NDP cabinet ministers to vote against a government bill extending financial benefits to same-sex partners. This decision cost him significant support within his party.
The NDP were defeated in the 1995 provincial election, and Farnan lost the Cambridge seat to Progressive Conservative Gerry Martiniuk by about 5,500 votes. He ran a second time for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1997 federal election, but finished third against Liberal Janko Peric.
In the late 1990s, Farnan became a school teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario. He specialized in social science courses (mainly Religion), and left the school a few years later.
