Frank Klees was born on March 6,1951 and is a former politician in Ontario, Canada.
24 Facts About Frank Klees
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Frank Klees was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014.
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Frank Klees was a cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.
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Frank Klees's parents were Danube Swabians, German pioneers whose ancestors settled in parts of eastern Europe that would later be known as Hungary and Yugoslavia.
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At the age of five, Klees came with his family to Canada and settled in Leamington, Ontario.
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Frank Klees worked as a businessman in the financial services sector with Canada Life Assurance.
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Frank Klees then became an entrepreneur, and started a sports agency which represented professional athletes.
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Frank Klees co-founded the Municipal Gas Corporation in 1990, and served as its executive vice-president until 1997.
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Frank Klees sat on the board of the controversial Universal Energy Corporation, a natural gas and electricity retailer which has been fined by the Ontario Energy Board on several occasions and frequently criticised by its own customers as being a scam.
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Frank Klees is currently a registered lobbyist working on behalf of the development industry.
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Frank Klees ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1975 provincial election, losing to Liberal Remo Mancini in the southwestern riding of Essex South.
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Frank Klees lost to Mancini a second time in the 1977 election.
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Frank Klees was easily re-elected in the 1999 provincial election running in the new riding of Oak Ridges.
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In 2000, Frank Klees was preparing to run as a candidate for the leadership of the new Canadian Alliance, but withdrew because one of his key financial backers insisted on a last-minute deal to make a significant funding commitment conditional on Frank Klees throwing his support to one of the other candidates on the second ballot.
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Frank Klees stepped down from his ministerial position on July 30,2001 for what he described as personal reasons.
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Frank Klees was re-elected in 2003, and was a candidate in the 2004 Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership election which took place on September 18,2004.
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Frank Klees was endorsed by Tory MPPs Jerry Ouellette, Ted Chudleigh and Bill Murdoch, and groups such as the Conservative Youth Coalition.
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Frank Klees was the only candidate to openly endorse a semi-privatized health care system.
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Frank Klees was eliminated from the contest after placing third on the first ballot; Tory subsequently won on the second ballot.
20.
Frank Klees was elected in the newly created provincial riding of Newmarket-Aurora in the 2007 Ontario general election.
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Frank Klees contested the 2009 leadership race, placing second behind the winner, Tim Hudak.
22.
On October 25,2011, Frank Klees announced that he would run for Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, in defiance of the opposition party leaders who had earlier ordered their members not to contest the Speakership.
23.
The minority Liberal government was one seat short of forming a majority and if Frank Klees had been elected Speaker, he would have given the government a working majority as the speaker usually votes with the government in motions of non-confidence.
24.
The Liberals better support him, because Frank Klees doesn't have a lot of friends in our caucus today.