29 Facts About David Zimmer

David Zimmer was born on April 7,1944 and is a former politician in Ontario, Canada.

David Zimmer was the Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for Willowdale from 2003 to 2018.

David Zimmer served in the cabinet of Kathleen Wynne, succeeding Wynne herself as the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs in 2013 for the full five years and four months length of the Wynne Ministry's.

David Zimmer attended University of Ottawa Law School and was called to the Bar of Ontario.

From 1982 to 1984 Zimmer was Director of the Humane Society and from 1993 to 1995 was President of the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

David Zimmer served as an administrative law instructor in the Law Society's Bar Admission Course.

In 1994, David Zimmer was appointed by the federal government to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada as its assistant deputy chairman heading the Toronto office, and was shortlisted for the national chairmanship in 1999.

David Zimmer first sought elected office as an alderman in Kitchener in the 1970s but was not successful.

David Zimmer left the PC Party and joined the Liberals in 1985, citing disenchantment with both federal leader Brian Mulroney and provincial leader Frank Miller.

David Zimmer acted as legal counsel to candidates of both Liberal Party of Canada and Ontario Liberal Party in a number of high profile dispute prior to his election.

David Zimmer was legal counsel for Maurizio Bevilacqua in the two year saga following his 1988 election, where the close results were extensively contested in court and was eventually voided by the Ontario Supreme Court.

David Zimmer chaired the federal party's permanent appeal committee, overseeing numerous appeals during the 1990 leadership contest and from nomination contests prior to the party's victory in 1993.

Between 2003 and 2011, David Zimmer served as Parliamentary Assistant to Attorneys General Michael Bryant and Chris Bentley.

Between 2011 and 2013, David Zimmer served as Parliamentary Assistant to Kathleen Wynne, then Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.

David Zimmer was a member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Standing Committee on Estimates, Standing Committee on Justice Policy, Standing Committee on General Government, Select Committee on Elections, and Select Committee on the proposed transaction of the TMX Group and the London Stock Exchange Group.

David Zimmer assisted former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant with legislation to ban pit bulls in Ontario.

David Zimmer was awarded the Greatest Local Hero Award by the North York Town Crier for his volunteer and community work in Willowdale.

David Zimmer has been cited for work on Ontario Municipal Board reform and the new City of Toronto Act, which gives Toronto greater power to manage its own affairs.

In February 2013, David Zimmer, who was Premier Kathleen Wynne's parliamentary assistant in the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, was appointed by Wynne to succeed herself as the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.

David Zimmer helmed the ministry, the second smallest in the government, during a period indigenous issues increasingly became a front burner, mainstream area of political discourse, rapidly gaining awareness among the voting public and unprecedent attention from the Ontario government led by Wynne and the federal administration of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Under David Zimmer's watch, the indigenous affairs ministry was thrusted into roles with much greater prominence and sensitivities while substantially expanded its scope in many of the government's economic policy initiatives.

Wynne placing importance on indigenous issues as both a cross-government priority and a personal priority, and her personal affinity with David Zimmer for being one of her earliest backers, were among the key enablers David Zimmer's and his ministry's success in securing significant, in some cases unprecedented, progress on many longstanding challenges.

David Zimmer oversaw Ontario's Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, including a $250 million special investment package, close to twice the ministry's annual budget, on an integrated suite of education, health, cultural and social services programs focused on reconciliation and addressing the legacy and negative impacts of residential schools.

David Zimmer placed specific focus on the indigenous relationship aspect of his role.

David Zimmer was determined to personally visit as many of Ontario's First Nation Communities as possible, including remote reserves in extremely poor conditions that are difficult to reach.

David Zimmer held the record as Ontario's longest serving minister for indigenous affairs until late 2023 when his successor Greg Rickford, who held the role as supplementary to various economic portfolios during different periods surpassed his record of 5 years and 4 months.

David Zimmer's tenure was the longest continuous period during which the ministry had a dedicated minister at the cabinet table.

The Liberals suffered their worst result in the party's 161-year history in 2018, and David Zimmer was defeated locally in Willowdale by Progressive Conservative candidate Stan Cho, who continues Willowdale's tradition as a ministerial seat in the Ford Ministry.

David Zimmer resumed his volunteer role chairing the Ontario Liberal Party's dispute resolution body throughout the 2020 and 2023 leadership contests, and was one of three panelists who co-led the party's post-mortem review of its 2022 electoral defeat.