Bill Vankoughnet
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William John (Bill) Vankoughnet (born January 7, 1943 in Kingston, Ontario) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 1993, and a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 1999.
Vankoughnet was educated at Loyalist College and Queen's University, and subsequently worked as a municipal administrator. He was also an active freemason and shriner, and is a life member of the Monarchist League of Canada and the Royal Canadian Legion.
He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1979 federal election, defeating Liberal Ron Vastokas by about 6,500 votes in the rural riding of Hastings—Frontenac, near Kingston. He was re-elected over Vastokas by a narrower margin in the 1980 election (which the Tories lost), and by a greater margin in the 1984 election (which they won in a landslide) in the renamed riding of Hastings—Frontenac—Lennox & Addington. In the 1988 election, he defeated Liberal Earl Smith by fewer than 1,000 votes. During his fourteen years in parliament, Vankoughnet never held an official legislative position. Unlike most Progressive Conservative MPs, Vankoughnet opposed the Meech Lake constitutional accord.
The Progressive Conservatives lost all their Ontario seats in the 1993 federal election, and Vankoughnet lost to Liberal Larry McCormick by over 13,000 votes.
Vankoughnet was elected to the provincial legislature two years later, defeating Liberal Peter Walker by about 2,000 votes in the riding of Frontenac—Addington (incumbent New Democrat Fred Wilson was third). He was not initially appointed to the cabinet of Mike Harris, though there was some speculation concerning the possibility of a future promotion.
Vankoughnet's prospects for career advancement all but ended on May 1, 1996, when he was caught trying to buy sexual favours from an undercover police officer who was posing as a prostitute in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto. The charges were dropped when Vankoughnet agreed to attend a "john school". He was immediately dropped from the Progressive Conservative caucus, though he returned on September 23, 1996. Vankoughnet played only a minimal role in the legislature after this incident. Ironically, he was formally accepted into the exclusive Albany Club of Toronto on the same day as his arrest.
In 1996, the government of Mike Harris reduced the number of provincial ridings from 130 to 103. This forced a number of sitting MPPs to compete against one another for renomination. Vankoughnet, his reputation still damaged by the prostitute incident, lost the Progressive Conservative nomination in Hastings—Frontenac—Lennox & Addington to Harry Danford in 1999.
Vankoughnet sought a political comeback in 2004 by challenging Scott Reid for the Conservative Party of Canada nomination in Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox & Addington. The party refused to permit his candidacy, however, and Vankoughnet challenged Reid in the general election as an independent candidate. He received only 820 votes.
