John Paul Harney

John Paul Harney
Member of Parliament for Scarborough West
In office 1972–1974
Preceded by	David Weatherhead
Succeeded by	Alan Martin
Personal details
Born	February 2, 1931 (1931-02-02) Montreal, Quebec
Political party	New Democrat
Profession	Professor
Religion	Unitarian

John Paul Harney (aka Jean-Paul Harney) (born February 2, 1931) is a professor and former Canadian politician.

Harney ran as a candidate for the New Democratic Party throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was the Provincial Secretary for the Ontario New Democratic Party from 1966 to 1970. In that time, he was also the campaign manager for that party's breakthrough campaign in the 1967 general election. He campaigned to become national leader at the NDP's 1971 leadership convention, coming in third behind winner David Lewis and runner-up James Laxer. He stood as a candidate again at the 1975 leadership convention, where he got as far as the second ballot.

From 1962 to 1965, he stood as a candidate in Wellington South. After moving to Toronto, he then stood once more as a candidate in Scarborough West in the 1968 federal election. He won a seat in the House of Commons in the 1972 federal election, but was defeated in 1974. He continued to campaign in subsequent elections there up to 1980. In addition, he sought the NDP nomination in the 1978 federal byelection for Broadview, but lost out to Bob Rae.

Born in Quebec and fluently bilingual, Harney returned to the province while on sabbatical from York University and became leader of the Quebec wing of the federal NDP in 1984. He led the relaunching of the New Democratic Party of Quebec as a provincial party in 1985 but was unable to win a seat either in the federal House of Commons (running in Lévis in two elections) or in the Quebec National Assembly (running in Louis-Hébert).

Late in the 1988 federal election campaign, he called a press conference to support using the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Constitution to protect Quebec's francophone culture and restrict the use of other languages. This press conference was not endorsed by the NDP leadership, and many believe that it cost the party support among Quebec's anglophones.

He stepped down in 1988.

Harney was a humanities professor at York University prior to returning to Quebec in 1985. In the 1960s he taught at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, Ontario.

Electoral record

Federal

Wellington South

Canadian federal election, 1962
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Alfred Dryden HALES	11,345	42.0	-17.4
	Liberal	Roy MCVITTIE	8,508	31.5	-0.6
	New Democrat	John HARNEY	6,989	25.9	17.4
	Social Credit	Reginald YOUD	174	0.6	0.6
Total valid votes			27,016	100.0

Canadian federal election, 1963
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Alfred Dryden HALES	11,350	39.7	-2.3
	Liberal	Ralph DENT	10,713	37.5	6.0
	New Democrat	John HARNEY	6,391	22.3	-3.6
	Social Credit	Reginald YOUD	150	0.5	-0.1
Total valid votes			28,604	100.0

Canadian federal election, 1965
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Alfred Dryden HALES	11,264	38.8	-0.9
	New Democrat	John HARNEY	9,190	31.6	7.3
	Liberal	Donald E. MCFADZEN	8,595	29.6	-7.9
Total valid votes			29,049	100.0

Scarborough West

Canadian federal election, 1968
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	David WEATHERHEAD	14,889	42.9
	New Democrat	John Paul HARNEY	12,473	35.9
	Progressive Conservative	Herb CROSBY	7,340	21.2
Total valid votes			34,702	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1972
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democrat	John Paul HARNEY	15,028	36.4	+0.5
	Liberal	David WEATHERHEAD	13,635	33.0	-9.9
	Progressive Conservative	Basil CLARK	12,539	30.4	+9.2
	Independent	Roger TENTREY	103	0.2	+0.2
Total valid votes			41,305	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1974
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alan MARTIN	13,702	36.6	+3.6
	New Democrat	John Paul HARNEY	12,298	32.8	-3.6
	Progressive Conservative	Basil CLARK	11,339	30.2	-0.2
	Marxist–Leninist	Linda TURNBULL	89	0.2	+0.2
	Independent	Harold ROWBOTTOM	61	0.2	0.0
Total valid votes			37,489	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1979
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Bill WIGHTMAN	15,697	36.4	+6.2
	Liberal	Alan MARTIN	13,523	31.4	-5.2
	New Democrat	John Paul HARNEY	13,437	31.2	-1.6
	Libertarian	D'Arcy J. CAIN	257	0.6	+0.6
	Communist	Tom BULL	114	0.3	+0.3
	Marxist–Leninist	Brenda MILLER	56	0.1	-0.1
Total valid votes			43,084	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1980
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	David WEATHERHEAD	14,316	35.1	+3.7
	New Democrat	John Paul HARNEY	13,146	32.2	+1.0
	Progressive Conservative	Bill WIGHTMAN	12,744	31.3	-5.1
	Libertarian	D'Arcy J. CAIN	401	1.0	+0.4
	Communist	John MACLENNAN	92	0.2	-0.1
	Marxist–Leninist	Brenda MILLER	66	0.2	+0.1
Total valid votes			40,765	100.00

Lévis

Canadian federal election, 1984
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Progressive Conservative	Gabriel Fontaine	32,338
	Liberal	Gaston Gourde	17,283
	New Democrat	Jean-Paul Harney	12,076
	Nationaliste	Antoine Dubé	1,649
	Rhino	Raymond Emiliano Marquis	1,630
	Social Credit	Jean-Paul Rhéaume	216

Canadian federal election, 1988
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Progressive Conservative	Gabriel Fontaine	33,673
	Liberal	Denis Sonier	13,002
	New Democrat	Jean-Paul Harney	11,501
	Social Credit	Jean-Paul Rhéaume	445

Québec

Louis-Hébert

Quebec general election, 1985
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Réjean Doyon	16,913	51.9	-0.9
	Parti Québécois	Louise Beaudoin	12,279	37.7	-6.4
	New Democrat	Jean-Paul Harney	2,798	8.6	+8.6
	Progressive Conservative	Claudette J. Hethrington	287	0.9	+0.9
	Independentist	Emmanuel Le Brasseur	252	0.8	+0.8
	Christian Socialist	Michel Durocher	58	0.2	+0.2

See also

• New Democratic Party of Ontario
• New Democratic Party of Quebec

External links

• John Paul Harney - Parliament of Canada biography