Gord Perks - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Gord Perks is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

environmentalist

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

, political activist, writer and is the city councillor

Toronto City Council

The Toronto City Council is the governing body of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Members represent wards throughout the city, and are known as councillors....

for the Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

municipal electoral district of Parkdale—High Park

Parkdale—High Park

Parkdale—High Park is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1979.Peggy Nash of the New Democratic Party was elected the Member of Parliament for the riding on May 2, 2011....

, Ward 14.

Environmentalist

Perks has worked for a number of environmental organizations. He was a writer for Pollution Probe from 1987 to 1989 and a "Pulp and Paper" campaigner at Greenpeace Canada

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

from 1989 to 1993. He was executive director

Executive director

Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...

of the Better Transportation Coalition from 1994 to 1996 and was a senior campaigner at the Toronto Environmental Alliance

Toronto Environmental Alliance

The Toronto Environmental Alliance is a Canadian non-profit environmental organization. Formed in 1988, TEA provides an activist voice on environmental issues affecting Toronto.-Mandate:TEA's mandate is to promote a greener Toronto...

from 1997 until 2006 with a focus on waste reduction and public transit. He also works as an adjunct professor at the Environmental Studies department of the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

.

Perks was the focus of province-wide attention when he disrupted Ontario Premier

Premier of Ontario

The Premier of Ontario is the first Minister of the Crown for the Canadian province of Ontario. The Premier is appointed as the province's head of government by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and presides over the Executive council, or Cabinet. The Executive Council Act The Premier of Ontario...

David Peterson

David Robert Peterson, PC, O.Ont was the 20th Premier of the Province of Ontario, Canada, from June 26, 1985 to October 1, 1990. He was the first Liberal premier of Ontario in 42 years....

's press conference launching the 1990 provincial election campaign

Ontario general election, 1990

The Ontario general election of 1990 was held on September 6, 1990, to elect members of the 35th Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario, Canada....

. As Peterson announced the election and began to make a statement as to why his government should be re-elected, Perks appeared with a briefcase chained to his wrist containing a tape recorder playing a recording of environmental promises made by Davis, in an act of criticism of the Liberal

Ontario Liberal Party

The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...

government's environmental record. Perks also heckled Peterson with a bullhorn. Greenpeace and other groups inspired by Perks' disruption plagued Peterson's campaign appearances.

Writer

Perks has written and co-authored a number of publications including The Green Consumer Guide (1989), Waste Less Now (1987) and Oil Drop (1989). In addition, he has written articles for Alternatives

Alternatives

Founded in 1994, Alternatives, Action and Communication Network for International Development, is a non-governmental, international solidarity organization based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada....

magazine and he wrote an environmental column for Torstar
Torstar
Torstar Corporation is an independently-owned Canadian broadly based media company that is named after its principal holding, the Toronto Star daily newspaper....

-owned Eye Weekly
Eye Weekly
Eye Weekly was a free weekly newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was owned by Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, and was published by their Star Media Group until its final issue on May 5, 2011. The following week, Torstar launched a successor publication, The Grid.-...

newspaper from 2003 to 2011.

Politics

Perks was a candidate for the New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

in the Toronto electoral district of Davenport

Davenport (electoral district)

Davenport is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1935. Its population in 2001 was 111,705.-Geography:...

, in the 2006 federal election

Canadian federal election, 2006

The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...

. He lost by over 7,000 votes to the incumbent Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

Member or Parliament, Mario Silva

Mario Silva

Mario Silva, is a Canadian politician and a former Canadian Member of Parliament. Silva is a former a Toronto City Councillor and acting mayor."Acting Mayor" is a non-elected position. For example, the sets out the duties and powers of their Acting Mayor. Other cities will no doubt have somewhat...

.

A few months later, he ran for city councillor in the nearby electoral district Parkdale—High Park, Ward 14, in the 2006 Toronto municipal election

Toronto municipal election, 2006

The 2006 Toronto municipal election took place on 13 November 2006 to elect a mayor and 44 city councillors in Toronto, Ontario. In addition, school trustees were elected to the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest...

. He was endorsed by then Mayor, David Miller

David Miller (Canadian politician)

David Raymond Miller is a Canadian politician. He was the 63rd Mayor of Toronto and the second since the 1998 amalgamation. He was elected to the position in 2003 for a three-year term and re-elected in 2006 for a four-year term...

, and ran against a slate of 13 other candidates.
He won this highly-contested race by a seven percent margin over his nearest rival.

Perks won re-election in the 2010 municipal election in Ward 14, over nine other candidates with an endorsement from the Toronto Star,

In his second term as councillor, Perks was named Chair of the Toronto and East York Community Council.

In 2011, Perks voted against scrapping the $60 vehicle registration tax. He also voted against a 40% cut on councillors' budgets. He called it "short sighted" because it did not take into account differences in the size of wards and unexpected events and emergencies.

Election results

Candidate	Votes	%
2010 Toronto election Toronto city council election, 2010 For information on the campaign for mayor see Toronto mayoral election, 2010The 2010 Toronto council election was held on October 25, 2010 to elect councillors to represent Toronto's 44 wards at Toronto City Council... , Ward 14
Gord Perks	8,542	51.8
Ryan Hobson	2,798	17.0
Michael Erickson	2,434	14.8
7 other candidatesCandidates who polled less than 1,000 votes in 2010 election were (in descending order): Bill Vrebosch, Cullen Simpson, Gus Koutoumanos, Barry Hubick, Jules-José Kerlinger, István Tar, Jimmy Talpa	2,713	16.5
Total	16,487	100

Candidate	Votes	%
2006 Toronto election Toronto municipal election, 2006 The 2006 Toronto municipal election took place on 13 November 2006 to elect a mayor and 44 city councillors in Toronto, Ontario. In addition, school trustees were elected to the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest... , Ward 14
Gord Perks	3,816	30.1
Rowena Santos	2,978	23.5
Ted Lojko	1,872	14.8
John Colautti	1,645	13.0
10 other candidatesCandidates who polled less than 1,000 votes in 2006 election were (in descending order): David White, Tom Freeman, Walter Jarsky, Dilorece South, Anthony Quinn, Beverly Bernardo, David Hanna, Matthew Vezina, Jimmy Talpa, Barry Hubick	2,350	18.6
Total	12,661	100

|-

|Liberal

Liberal Party of Canada

New Democratic Party

|Gord Perks

Gord Perks

Gord Perks is a Canadian environmentalist, political activist, writer and is the city councillor for the Toronto municipal electoral district of Parkdale—High Park, Ward 14.-Environmentalist:...

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

Green Party of Canada

The Green Party of Canada is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1983 with 10,000–12,000 registered members as of October 2008. The Greens advance a broad multi-issue political platform that reflects its core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and...

|Mark O'Brien

Green Party candidates, 2006 Canadian federal election

The Green Party of Canada ran a full slate of 308 candidates in the 2006 Canadian federal election. Some of these candidates have separate biography pages; relevant information about other candidates may be found here....

Communist Party of Canada

The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...

|Miguel Figueroa

Miguel Figueroa

Miguel Figueroa has been the leader of the Communist Party of Canada since 1992.- Early political career :Figueroa was born in Montreal, and has been a member of the CPC since 1977. He has held many positions within the CPC, including party organizer in Vancouver from 1978 to 1985, and leader of...

Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist)

The Communist Party of Canada is a Canadian federal Marxist–Leninist political party.The party is registered with Elections Canada as the Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada...

External links

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