Jim Jordan (Canadian politician)

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Jim Jordan (born 2 September 1928 in Marlbank, Ontario) was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1987 to 1997. His career had been in education as a teacher and administrator.

Jim Jordan was born the youngest of seven children to George and Hannah Jordan(nee Taylor) on September 2, 1928 about one year before the beginning of the Great Depression. His father, George, ran unsuccessfully in the riding of East Hastings for the Liberals in the provincial election of 1948. George Jordan had a long career as a municipal politician for Hungerford Township which is in the Belleville-Tweed area of Ontario.

Jim Jordan was educated in Marlbank, Tweed and at Regiopolis in Kingston. He attended Teacher's College (then called Normal School) in 1949 following completion of Grade 13. He married Mary Barrett in 1953. He began his teaching career at CFB Petawawa eventually rising to the position of principal after 8 years. He then accepted a position of school inspector in the Lanark, Leeds and Grenville area. In 1969 Jim became the first Director of Education for the Lanark, Leeds and Grenville School Board. He retired from the education field in 1985. He didn't stay retired for long.

He had always had an interest in politics beginning with local politics in Hungerford Township and following on with a long friendship and working relationship with long time Ontario Liberal MP for North Renfrew, Len Hopkins. Mr. Jordan's first personal foray into politics was a run for the David Peterson Liberals for Leeds and Grenville in the Ontario election of 1987. While the Peterson government was successful province wide Jim Jordan came within fewer than 200 votes of defeating the popular Conservative incumbent cabinet minister and present day Tory House Leader at Queen's Park, Bob Runciman.

Jim then chose to contest the federal election of 1987 for the John Turner Liberals. The national trend in that particular election was very much in favor of Brian Mulroney's Conservative Party but in Leeds and Grenville, a staunch bastion of conservatism for most of Canadian history the trend was turned on its head with Jim Jordan notching an upset over the Conservative incumbent Jennifer Cossitt by over 2000 votes. The victory was attributed to Jordan's personal popularity from his many years as the high profile Director of Education for the Lanark, Leeds and Grenville School Board as well as the hard work of his campaign manager, Brockville lawyer Michael O'Shaughnessy, Jim's wife Mary, their six sons and a large group of election workers from every corner of the riding.

A subsequent election victory for Jordan with a plurality of over 12,000 in the federal election of 1993 with Jean Chretien as the new leader gave him the opportunity to have his greatest impact on the future of his constituency. During that election Jean Chretien had promised funds to replace the old 2 lane Highway 16 which ran between Johnstown, Ontario and Ottawa with a 4 lane divided highway. When Chretien was reminded of his promise post-election he balked. In a personal confrontation never revealed before this writing, between Jordan and Chretien in the Prime Minister's Office on May 10, 1994, Jordan threatened to cross the floor to sit as an independent member. Jean Chretien decided he couldn't afford to lose his MP from Leeds and Grenville over this matter and directed the money be found to construct what is now called The Veteran's Memorial Highway (416). It was finished in late 2000 with the aid of the provincial government and now provides a much improved route to our Nation's Capital.

Jim Jordan retired from public service in 1997 prior to the federal election that year. Subsequently, his son Joseph Jordan, secured the Liberal nomination in Leeds and Grenville and succeeded his father as MP in the thirty-sixth federal parliament. This marked the first time in Canadian history that a son had directly succeeded his father as MP for the same constituency.