George Graham (Ontario politician)

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George Frederick Graham (born March 16, 1966 in East York, Ontario, Canada) is a political activist currently living in Ajax, Ontario. In the 1984 federal election, he became the youngest person in Canadian history to run for Parliament, when he ran as a Libertarian Party candidate in the federal riding of Willowdale. That record stood until 1993.

George Graham, circa 2002..

Graham entered politics at the age of 13 as a founding member of the Oriole (constituency) Progressive Conservative Youth Association. He wrote the group's constitution and was elected Vice-President. He left the Progressive Conservative Party in 1982, joining the Ontario Libertarian Party.

Between 1984 and 1987, Graham ran as a Libertarian candidate in one federal general election (1984), two provincial general elections (1985 and 1987) and one provincial by-election (1984). In 1986, Graham ran for Deputy Leader of the Ontario Libertarian Party, losing to current Party Treasurer Jim McIntosh.

In 1988, Graham was elected to the Executive Committee of the Ontario Libertarian Party as Member-at-Large. He was defeated in his bid for re-election the following year, and resigned from the Party shortly thereafter.

From 1991 to 2006, he was a member of the Reform Party of Canada and its successors, the Canadian Alliance and the Conservative Party of Canada. In September 2006 he announced, via his LiveJournal, that he had re-joined the Ontario Libertarian Party. In November 2006 he was elected to that Party's Executive Committee as Member-at-Large, the same position he'd held seventeen years earlier.

In 1991, Graham graduated from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. He subsequently studied at Vancouver Community College and the Toronto School of Theology.

From 1991 to 1995, Graham served as Director of Development (chief fundraiser) with Vancouver's Fraser Institute. In the Institute's 1995 Annual Report it was noted that he had doubled both the Institute's membership and donation revenue during his four-year tenure. He has also worked as a development officer with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (Winnipeg, Manitoba), Youth Employment Service (a Toronto non-profit that helps "disadvantaged" young people find work) and Halifax's Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.

Graham's last known employment was as an English Instructor at Toronto's Seneca College during the Spring 2002 term, teaching first-year English Composition to foreign students. In October 2006 he started writing occasional columns for LewRockwell.com.

In 2000, George Graham was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, which he claims to have contracted as a result of a childhood transfusion. In 2005 he co-founded the Durham Region Chapter of the Canadian Liver Foundation, and served as the Chapter's first Vice-Chair.

Graham serves as Lay Reader in a parish of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada. According to his blog, he hopes to begin studying for the priesthood in 2007 or 2008. Married in 2003, he has three children from a previous marriage and one son from his current marriage.

1 Electoral history
2 Published work
- 2.1 Articles
- 2.2 Books
3 External links

[edit] Electoral history

1984 - Canadian federal election - received 329 votes (0.6%) in Willowdale riding. (Winner: John Oostrom, Progressive Conservative)
1984 - Ontario by-election - received 162 votes (0.8%) in Wentworth North constituency. (Winner: Ann Sloat, Progressive Conservative)
1985 - Ontario general election - received 1,106 votes (3.1%) in Oriole constituency. (Winner: Elinor Caplan, Liberal)
1987 - Ontario general election - received 822 votes (3.0%) in Oriole constituency. (Winner: Elinor Caplan, Liberal)