Ray Haggerty

Raymond Louis Haggerty (April 6, 1923 – April 23, 2011) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal from 1967 to 1990.

Haggerty was born in Port Colborne, Ontario and he was educated at Port Colborne High School. He served as a councillor in Bertie Township in 1956-57, and was its deputy reeve from 1960 to 1967. He was also a councillor in Welland from 1960 to 1967.

He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1967 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative Gordon Taylor by 107 votes in the constituency of Welland South. In the 1971 election, he was re-elected by 438 votes. Haggerty was returned by much greater majorities in the elections of 1975, 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1987. He did not seek re-election in 1990.

After having been out of office since 1943, the Liberal Party under David Peterson formed a minority government in 1985, and won a majority government in 1987. Despite his long tenure in the legislature, Haggerty, in his sixties during the Peterson government, was not appointed to cabinet.

He remained active in the Niagara community after his retirement from politics, and he was the president of the Niagara South Plowman's Association. Haggerty was married to Marie and he had one daughter, Laurie, and two sons, Dennis and Tim.