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16 Facts About Ruth Grier

1.

Ruth Anna Grier was born on 2 October 1936 and is a former Canadian politician in Ontario.

2.

Ruth Grier was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1995 and served as a high-profile cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.

3.

Ruth Grier was elected as an alderman in the Mimico area in the borough of Etobicoke in 1969.

4.

Ruth Grier beat her opponent Gordon Rush by 31 votes.

5.

Ruth Grier supported Walter Pitman for the 1970 Ontario NDP leadership race.

6.

Ruth Grier remained as alderman until 1985 when she ran for election in the provincial election.

7.

Ruth Grier ran as the NDP candidate in the riding of Lakeshore.

8.

Ruth Grier ran on a campaign criticizing Tory incumbent Al Kolyn of being lax on environmental issues and on the closing of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in 1979.

9.

Ruth Grier won the election defeating both second place Liberal candidate Frank Sgarlata by 2,037 votes and Kolyn who finished third.

10.

In December 1986, Ruth Grier proposed an Environmental Bill of Rights.

11.

In January 1989, Ruth Grier sponsored a private member's bill that proposed to ban the sale of irradiated foods in Ontario.

12.

The NDP won a majority government in the 1990 provincial election and Ruth Grier won her riding handily.

13.

Ruth Grier was appointed as the Minister of the Environment on 1 October 1990.

14.

Ruth Grier's government introduced midwifery as a profession, targeted resources toward community health centres, created a Task Force on the Prevention of Cancer and introduced the Trillium Drug Plan.

15.

Notwithstanding her efforts to pursue some traditional NDP policies while in government, Ruth Grier generally supported Bob Rae in his efforts to move the party to the political centre.

16.

Ruth Grier was named Visiting Environmentalist at the University of Toronto in 1997, and remains involved in environmental concerns.