Conrad Santos

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Conrad Santos (November 26, 1934-) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1981 to 1988, and again from 1990 to 2007.

Santos was born in the Philippines and was educated as Harvard University and the University of Michigan, receiving a PhD in Political Science from the latter institution. He moved to Winnipeg in 1965 after receiving a teaching position at the University of Manitoba, where he continues to serve as a faculty member. Santos has also worked as a consultant for the Instituto Centro-Americano de Administracion Publica in Costa Rica, and was a board member of the Citizenship Council of Manitoba from 1977 to 1980.

He sought the New Democratic Party of Manitoba (NDP) nomination for Fort Garry in the 1973 election, but was defeated. He ran for the Winnipeg city council in 1977 and 1980, but lost both times.

Santos was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1981 provincial election as a New Democrat in the northwest Winnipeg riding of Burrows, defeating NDP-turned-Progressive Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Ben Hanuschak. He was re-elected in the 1986 election. In June 1984, there were unconfirmed rumours that he was considering a move to the Progressive Conservative Party. In 1987, he was accused of trying to use his political position to prevent Winnipeg School Division No. 1 from expropriating a house he owned.^[1]

Santos lost the Burrows NDP nomination to Doug Martindale in 1988, and subsequently entered the party's leadership election. He was not regarded as a serious candidate, and received only five votes on the first ballot. (See New Democratic Party of Manitoba leadership conventions.) Santos ran for mayor of Winnipeg in 1989, but was again not considered a serious candidate and finished a distant fourth.

In 1990, Santos won the NDP nomination for Broadway, another northwest riding, by a single vote over favoured candidate Marianne Cerilli. He subsequently defeated Liberal incumbent Avis Gray in the 1990 general election, and was re-elected in the 1995 election. In 1995, he endorsed Lorne Nystrom's bid to lead the federal NDP.

When the Broadway riding was eliminated by redistribution in 1999, Santos won the NDP nomination in Wellington (also in Winnipeg's northwest), and was returned by a wide margin in the 1999 provincial election. He was again re-elected in the 2003 election.

Santos was named Deputy Speaker after the elections of 1986 and 1999, but has never been appointed to a cabinet position.

Santos left the New Democratic Party caucus shortly before the 2007 provincial election after being accused of improperly selling party membership cards (he denied the charge). He campaigned as an independent, and finished last in a field of five candidates. His successor, Flor Marcelino, was a last minute replacement candidate for the NDP.

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