| The Hon. Rev. Don Meredith | |
|---|---|
| Don Meredith during the candidates debate for the 2008 Toronto Centre by-election | |
| Senator for Ontario | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office December 18, 2010 |
|
| Appointed by | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Peter Stollery |
| Personal details | |
| Born | July 13, 1964 Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica |
| Political party | Conservative Party of Canada |
| Residence | Richmond Hill, Ontario |
| Religion | Pentecostal |
Don Meredith (born July 13, 1964)[1] is an ordained minister[1] in Canada, executive director of the GTA Faith Alliance which focuses on the issue of youth violence, particularly involving gangs and guns, and a member of the Canadian Senate.[2][3][4][5] The GTA Faith Alliance has organized peace rallies in the Malvern and Rexdale communities of Toronto following incidents of violence as well as organizing town hall meetings on related community issues.[2] Meredith was the Conservative candidate in the March 17, 2008 federal by-election in Toronto Centre. He received 12.5% of the vote, and placed fourth behind Liberal victor Bob Rae and the New Democratic and Green candidates.
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Born and raised in Jamaica, Meredith immigrated to Canada and became a Canadian citizen in the early 1980s.[6] He attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and, while he was a student, began Donscape Landscaping Services which he still owns and operates.[1]
Meredith was ordained as a minister in 2006,[1] is a graduate of Rhema Studies of Theology Association[7] and is the volunteer Senior Pastor at the Pentecostal Praise Centre in Maple, Ontario[8] close to Richmond Hill, Ontario[1] where he now lives.[9] Previously, he was a minister at Grace Christian Life Centre in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough.[5] Meredith is a member of the Chief’s Advisory Council for the Toronto Police Services and has also been a member of the York Region Community Police Liaison since 2004, as well as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Consultative Committee since 2005.[2] He is the former Co-Chair of the Black Community Police Consultative Committee an advisory group of community members who advise the police on various issues. Meredith participated in the “Black Family Summit” held in August 2006.[10]
In December 2007 he was nominated by the Conservative Party of Canada as its candidate in the downtown Toronto riding of Toronto Centre federal by-election held on March 17, 2008.[11] Meredith won the Conservative nomination by acclamation several weeks after the party controversially removed Mark Warner as its standard-bearer.[12]
Meredith is a social conservative who has spoken out against pre-marital sex and stated that "when we have marriages, we don't have these social problems."[13] He has also stated that he personally believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman and that he is opposed to same-sex marriage.[14] Meredith has also stated that he would like to see the age of sexual consent raised to 18 from 14 which is it at odds with the Conservative government's stated intention to raise the age of consent from 14 to 16.[14] Nonetheless, Meredith has indicated that he supports New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) Bill Siksay's private member's bill[15] to add gender identity to the list of distinguishable group traits protected from hate speech by the Criminal Code and to allow judges to take into account whether crimes were motivated by hatred of transgender or transsexual people when determining the offender's sentence.[16] In opposition, Stephen Harper had opposed Siksay's predecessor, former NDP MP Svend Robinson's successful private member's bill that added sexual orientation to the law in 2004.[17]
Meredith was criticized after he attended an all candidates meeting in the St. James Town neighbourhood and responded to a questioner complaining about the neighbourhood's ongoing problem with bedbugs by suggesting that the problem may be related to the complainant's personal hygiene.[18] Former Conservative candidate Mark Warner decided, as a result of this and his ouster, to endorse rival candidate Bob Rae, saying of Meredith that “Telling your potential constituents ‘you stink, you don’t wash, you live in filth’ probably isn’t the best way to win an election.”[19]
He placed fourth in the by-election which saw him receiving 12.5% of the vote, down from the 18.2% received by the Conservative candidate in the 2006 federal election and also down from the 18.3% that the Conservative candidate would receive in the federal election held seven months after the by-election.
Meredith was appointed to the Canadian Senate on December 18, 2010 on the advice of Prime Minister Harper. He sits as a Conservative.
In 2006, Meredith received an Urban Leadership Award from the Canadian Urban Institute for being an “outspoken advocate against crime and for the advancement of a just society”.[2]
| By-election on March 17, 2008: Toronto Centre | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Bob Rae | 14,187 | 59.2 | +7.0% | |
| New Democrat | El-Farouk Khaki | 3,299 | 13.8 | -9.9% | |
| Green | Chris Tindal | 3,263 | 13.6 | +8.4% | |
| Conservative | Donald Meredith | 2,982 | 12.5 | -5.7% | |
| Animal Alliance | Liz White | 123 | 0.5 | +0.4% | |
| Canadian Action | Doug Plumb | 97 | 0.4 | - | |
| Liberal hold | Swing | +8.5 | |||
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