John Rafferty (Canadian politician)

John Rafferty (July 3, 1953 – June 30, 2019) was a Canadian politician, who served as the Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River from 2008 to 2015.

John Rafferty
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River
In office October 14, 2008 – August 4, 2015
Preceded by	Ken Boshcoff
Succeeded by	Don Rusnak
Personal details
Born	July 3, 1953 Wingham, Ontario, Canada
Died	June 30, 2019 (aged 65) Neebing, Ontario, Canada
Political party	New Democratic Party
Profession	instructor, teacher, small business owner

Rafferty was previously the party's candidate in Thunder Bay—Superior North for the 2000 federal election, in Thunder Bay—Rainy River for the 2004 and 2006 federal elections, and in Thunder Bay—Atikokan in the 2003 and 2007 provincial elections. Provincially, he lost to incumbent MPP Bill Mauro by a margin of just 50 votes in 2007.

Rafferty was born in Wingham, Ontario. He worked as a radio broadcaster for CKPR in Thunder Bay before leaving to pursue his first election campaign. He subsequently launched his own business producing voiceovers for educational and training videos.

Rafferty introduced one piece of legislation: the National Strategy for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Act. He first introduced it on September 30, 2010, in the third session of the 40th Parliament as a private member's bill. He re-introduced it in June 2011, during the first session of the 41st Parliament.

He was slated to represent the Ontario New Democratic Party in the 2018 Ontario provincial election campaign, but withdrew in January 2018 due to ill health.[1] He died on June 30, 2019 from cancer, at the age of 65, three days before his 66th birthday.[1][2]

Electoral record

2015 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Don Rusnak	18,523	44.01	+22.31	$69,724.11
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	12,483	29.66	-18.99	$106,616.41
	Conservative	Moe Comuzzi	8,876	21.09	-6.12	$64,890.91
	Green	Christy Radbourne	2,201	5.23	+2.79	$3,586.52
Total valid votes/Expense limit			42,083	100.0		$233,739.33
Total rejected ballots			176	–	–
Turnout			42,259	67.6	+7.5
Eligible voters			62,773
Source: Elections Canada[3][4]

2011 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	18,039	48.1	+7.8
	Conservative	Moe Comuzzi-Stehmann	10,096	27.2	+3.6
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	8,066	21.7	-10.6
	Green	Ed Shields	909	2.4	-1.4
Total valid votes			37,110

2008 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	14,473	40.3	+6.9
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	11,589	32.3	-2.8
	Conservative	Richard Neumann	8,466	23.6	-3.6
	Green	Russ Aegard	1,377	3.8	+0.7
Total valid votes			35,905

2007 Ontario general election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bill Mauro	10,913	37.7	-20.55
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	10,877	37.5	+15.88
	Progressive Conservative	Rebecca Johnson	5,914	20.4	+2.78
	Green	Russ Aegard	1,271	4.4	+1.89

2006 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	13,525	35.1%
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	12,862	33.4%
	Conservative	David Leskowski	10,485	27.2%
	Green	Russ Aegard	1,189	3.1%
	Marijuana	Doug MacKay	424	1.1%
Total valid votes			38,485

2004 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	14,290
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	10,781
	Conservative	David Leskowski	9,559
	Green	Russ Aegard	856
	Marijuana	Doug Thompson	547
	Christian Heritage	Johannes Scheibler	267

2003 Ontario general election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bill Mauro	17735	58.25	-5.78
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	6582	21.62	4.86
	Progressive Conservative	Brian McKinnon	5365	17.62	-1.59
	Green	Kristin Boyer	762	2.5

2000 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Joe Comuzzi	15,241
	Alliance	Doug Pantry	6,278
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	6,169
	Progressive Conservative	Richard Neumann	2,753
	Green	Carl Rose	648
	Marijuana	Denis A. Carrière	581

References

1. "Former MP John Rafferty dies". TBNewsWatch.com. July 1, 2019. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
3. Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for Thunder Bay—Rainy River, 30 September 2015
4. Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates

External links

• John Rafferty
• John Rafferty – Parliament of Canada biography