David MacDonald (Canadian politician)

The Honourable
David MacDonald
PC
The Honourable David MacDonald PC
Member of Parliament; for Rosedale
	In office; 1988–1993
Preceded by	David Crombie
Succeeded by	Bill Graham
Member of Parliament; for Egmont
	In office; 1968–1980
Preceded by	New riding
Succeeded by	George Henderson
Member of Parliament; for Prince
	In office; 1965–1968
Preceded by	John Watson MacNaught
Succeeded by	Riding abolished
Personal details
Born	August 20, 1936 (age 88); Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Political party	New Democratic (1996–present)
Other political; affiliations	Progressive Conservative (before 1996)
Spouse(s)	Sandrabelle Rogers; (m. 1964⁠–⁠1997); Deborah Sinclair; (m. 2005)
Domestic partner	Alexa McDonough (1997-2004)
Occupation	United Church minister, politician

David Samuel Horne MacDonald, PC (born August 20, 1936) is a Canadian United Church of Canada minister, former politician, and author.

Born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, David MacDonald was ordained in the United Church by the Maritime Conference on June 11, 1961, and was a minister at Alberton, Tignish, and Cascumpec, Prince Edward Island before going into federal politics.

He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) from the former Prince Edward Island riding of Prince in the 1965 election, and was re-elected in the realigned Egmont riding from 1968 until 1979.^[1]

After the Tory victory in the 1979 election, he was appointed Minister of Communications, Minister responsible for the Status of Women and Secretary of State for Canada in the short-lived Cabinet of Prime Minister Joe Clark.

MacDonald lost his seat to Liberal George Henderson in the 1980 election but returned to the House as MP in the Toronto riding of Rosedale in the 1988 election, replacing former Toronto Mayor and PC incumbent David Crombie.

However, he lost his seat again to a Liberal majority government in the 1993 election, this time to Bill Graham. Two other notable candidates ran against MacDonald in this election: future New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton, and magician Doug Henning for the Natural Law Party of Canada.

MacDonald also spent time in Africa between parliamentary duties.

MacDonald had a reputation as a Red Tory (i.e., left-leaning), and subsequently switched his political allegiance to the social democratic New Democratic Party of Canada. He ran as the NDP candidate in his old riding (now called Toronto Centre-Rosedale) in the 1997 election, but was defeated again by Graham.

MacDonald was romantically involved with time as leader of the federal NDP, Alexa McDonough prior to his 1997 candidacy.^[2] However, they split up prior to the 2004 federal election.^[3] MacDonald has since started another relationship and married.^[3]

On November 25, 1998, The United Church of Canada appointed MacDonald a Special Advisor on residential schools, in light of major lawsuits against the UCC from former students.

Electoral record

Toronto Centre—Rosedale

1997 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bill Graham	22,945	49.19	-0.80
	New Democratic	David MacDonald	9,597	20.58	+9.80
	Progressive Conservative	Stephen Probyn	8,993	19.28	-1.96
	Reform	John Stewart	3,646	7.82	-4.65
	Green	Jim Harris	577	1.24	+0.30
	Canadian Action	Anthony Robert Pedrette	303	0.65
	Natural Law	Ron Parker	270	0.58	-1.01
	Marxist–Leninist	Steve Rutchinski	166	0.36	+0.25
	Independent	Ted W. Culp	145	0.31
Total valid votes			46,642	100.00

Rosedale

Template:Canadian federal election, 1993/Electoral District/Toronto Centre

1988 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	22,704	41.36	-11.44
	Liberal	Bill Graham	22,624	41.21	+15.08
	New Democratic	Doug Wilson	8,266	15.06	-2.77
	Libertarian	Chris Blatchly	411	0.75	+0.09
	Green	Frank de Jong	397	0.72	-1.15
	Rhinoceros	Liane McLarty	265	0.48
	Independent	Mike Constable	102	0.19
	Independent	Harry Margel	91	0.17
	Commonwealth of Canada	Paul Therrien	33	0.06	-0.27
Total valid votes			54,893	100.00

Egmont

1980 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Henderson	8,639	52.37	+12.93
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	7,033	42.63	-13.44
	New Democratic	Vincent Gallant	824	5.00	+0.51
Total valid votes			16,496	100.00

1979 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	8,861	56.07	+3.82
	Liberal	Bill Reese	6,233	39.44	-4.81
	New Democratic	Vincent Gallant	710	4.49	+0.98
Total valid votes			15,804	100.00

1974 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	7,583	52.25	-3.53
	Liberal	Bill Reese	6,422	44.25	+3.97
	New Democratic	Cletus Shea	509	3.51	-0.04
Total valid votes			14,514	100.00

1972 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	7,868	55.78	+2.26
	Liberal	George W. Olscamp	5,681	40.28	-4.02
	New Democratic	Carroll L. Kadey	501	3.55	+1.37
	Social Credit	Hugh G. Ryan	55	0.39
Total valid votes			14,105	100.00

1968 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	7,182	53.52
	Liberal	J. Melville Campbell	5,945	44.30
	New Democratic	Harvey Dawson	292	2.18
Total valid votes			13,419	100.00

Prince

1965 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	9,082
	Liberal	John Watson MacNaught	8,312
	New Democratic	Harvey Dawson	384

Notes

^ Parliament of Canada, Parliamentarian File
^ Sheppard, Robert (April 14, 1997). "You call that endurance?". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. p. A13.
^ ^a ^b Ottawa Citizen Staff (October 4, 2008). "Alexa McDonough reflects on time and change as she eases into life after politics: So how are you feeling?". Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2015. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Marc Lalonde	Minister responsible for the Status of Women 4 June 1979 – 2 March 1980	Succeeded by Lloyd Axworthy

[1] Parliament of Canada, Parliamentarian File

[Sheppard-2] Sheppard, Robert (April 14, 1997). "You call that endurance?". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. p. A13.

[MP_Retirement_Interview-3] Ottawa Citizen Staff (October 4, 2008). "Alexa McDonough reflects on time and change as she eases into life after politics: So how are you feeling?". Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2015. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

[1]

[2]

[3]

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF WorldCat
National	United States

v t e Ministers of Communications
Kierans Côté Pelletier Stanbury Pelletier Juneau Lang Sauvé D. MacDonald Fox Lumley Masse Bouchard Masse F. MacDonald Murray Masse Beatty Landry Dupuy Copps Robillard Copps¹
¹The offices of Minister of Communications, and Minister of Multiculturalism and Citizenship were abolished and the office of Minister of Canadian Heritage came in force July 12, 1996.