20 Facts About Norm Sterling

Norman William "Norm" Sterling was born on February 19,1942 and is a Canadian politician, who served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1977 to 2011.

Norm Sterling ran unsuccessfully for a Progressive Conservative nomination in 1971, at age 29.

Norm Sterling became parliamentary assistant to the Attorney General in 1978, but was not appointed to the cabinet of Bill Davis in his first term as a Member of Provincial Parliament.

Norm Sterling was returned without difficulty in the 1981 election, and served as a minister without portfolio from April 10,1981 to February 13,1982.

Norm Sterling was appointed as Provincial Secretary for Justice on February 13,1982.

Norm Sterling, who represents a predominantly rural and Protestant region of Ontario, disagreed with the Davis government's decision to fully fund Ontario's Catholic school system and insisted that his protest be entered into the official minutes of the executive council.

Norm Sterling initially supported Dennis Timbrell to replace Davis as party leader, but crossed to Frank Miller on the last ballot after Timbrell was eliminated.

The Progressive Conservatives lost power following the 1985 election, although Norm Sterling had no difficulty being re-elected in his own riding.

On this occasion, Norm Sterling broke with Timbrell, and supported Larry Grossman.

The Progressive Conservatives formed government under Mike Harris in 1995, and Norm Sterling was appointed Minister of Small Business and Consumer Services on June 26 of that year.

Norm Sterling took responsibility for failing to read a warning from the health minister about shortfalls in the water-testing system.

Norm Sterling was appointed Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Government House Leader on June 17,1999.

The Progressive Conservatives were defeated in the 2003 provincial election, although Norm Sterling was able to defeat Liberal Marianne Wilkinson by about 6,000 votes.

In 2004, Norm Sterling opposed parts of the legislation to create the GTA-area Greenbelt that did not allow easily removing protected status from designated land, and voted against the bill in 2005.

Lanark-Carleton was redistributed prior to the 2007 provincial election, and Norm Sterling ran for re-election in the newly created riding of Carleton-Mississippi Mills, which had been created out of the eastern two-thirds of his old riding.

Norm Sterling won by a convincing margin, defeating Liberal Megan Cornell by over 7,000 votes.

In March 2011, Norm Sterling was defeated in the race for his riding's PC nomination for the 2011 Ontario general election by Jack MacLaren, the former president of the Ontario Landowners Association, and left politics upon his term running out.

Norm Sterling held multiple shadow cabinet portfolios during his second stint in opposition, such as critic for Democratic Renewal, critic for Health Promotion, critic for Intergovernmental Affairs, and Finance critic.

Norm Sterling served as the chair of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts during this period.

Norm Sterling will be in charge of Ford's plan to expand the Greenbelt, which was announced after public blowback from Crombie's resignation.