William A. Ferguson

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For other people named William Ferguson, see William Ferguson

William A. Ferguson (born February 13, 1954 in Kitchener, Ontario) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1994, and served as a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae, but was forced to resign from office amid scandal.He is not related to John Ferguson.

Ferguson was educated at Conestoga College, and holds a degree in social work. He worked at the Grandville girls' reform school in the 1970s, and was involved with the Big Brothers Association of Kitchener in 1982-83. He then worked as an employment councillor at The Working Centre from 1984 to 1988, and was Director of Administration at Dusty's Disposal from 1989 to 1990. Ferguson was also an alderman in the City of Kitchener and a councillor in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo from 1979 to 1990.

He ran as a candidate of the federal New Democratic Party in the Canadian general election of 1984, but finished third in the riding of Kitchener.

The Ontario New Democratic Party won an unexpected majority government in the provincial election of 1990, and Ferguson was elected for the party in the provincial riding of Kitchener, defeated incumbent Liberal David Cooke by 6,019 votes. He initially served as a parliamentary assistant, and was promoted to Minister of Energy on July 31, 1991.

Shortly after his appointment, Ferguson was accused of having allowed Grandville students to escape from the reform school during the 1970s. He denied the accusation. Subsequently, an aide to the premier attempted to leak information to a reporter about one of Ferguson's accusers. The reporter refused to accept the information, and wrote that the aide's actions were inappropriate. (Allegations of sexual abuse at Grandville were also raised during this period. Ferguson was not accused of sexual misconduct.)

Ferguson left the NDP caucus on April 30, 1993, but was re-admitted on June 21, 1994 after being acquitted of all charges. He served as a parliamentary assistant again, but was never re-appointed to cabinet.

He resigned from the legislature on October 8, 1994, to run for mayor of Kitchener. He was defeated.