Tony O'Donohue
Encyclopedia
Anthony "Tony" O'Donohue (born 1933) is a former municipal politician in Toronto
, Ontario
.
, County Clare
, Ireland
(then Irish Free State
), O'Donohue graduated as a civil engineer
from University College, Galway
in 1954. He moved to Toronto in 1956 to pursue his profession as a municipal engineer designing urban services such as roads, water supply, sewage treatment, storm water run-off and waste management.
Inspired by Prime Minister
Lester B. Pearson
's initiative for a new flag for Canada, O'Donohue joined the Young Liberals in the early 1960s and made many trips to Ottawa with other Young Liberals to support the new flag
proposal. As one of the party's first advocates for environmental causes, he encouraged the Young Liberals to become active in environmental issues. His Liberal Party
national convention papers on water supply and sewage treatment received national attention.
alderman
in the 1966 municipal election. As an engineer, he focused on the need for a clearer understanding of the environment and, as a reformer, encouraged a new approach to local politics. He ran for Toronto mayor in 1972, losing to David Crombie, and again in 1978 to John Sewell
. His 1978 defeat to the left-wing Sewell was seen as a result of vote splitting
between O'Donohue and David Smith
, a Liberal
.
O'Donohue and colleague Art Eggleton
had agreed that only one of them should run against Sewell for mayor in 1980. They were to conduct a public opinion poll to determine which of them had the better chance of toppling the incumbent Mayor. However, according to O'Donohue's memoirs, Eggleton broke the pact and unilaterally declared himself a mayoralty candidate forcing O'Donohue to stay out of the race in order not to split the vote.
O'Donohue was returned to City Council following a by-election after the death of City Councillor George Ben
in 1980. He spent the next 14 years working to address the many energy and environmental problems facing urban areas.
In April 1989, O'Donohue introduced a by-law at City Council to ban the manufacture, sale, distribution and use of ozone depleting substances. It was the first such legislation anywhere and became a model for other cities. As a result, he was invited to make a presentation on the Toronto by-law at the Beckman Institute of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, in Irvine, California
. While there, he consulted world-renowned chemist and later Nobel laureate Frank Sherwood Rowland
on how to help prevent the dumping of ozone depleting substances into the atmosphere.
In 1992, he presented a motion to City Council to adopt a by-law prohibiting anyone from lying, sleeping or blocking city sidewalks. He argued that the city paid millions of dollars to make sufficient beds available for the homeless and there was no need for anyone to lie or sleep on the sidewalks. The motion lost and sleeping on the sidewalks has remained part of the landscape in downtown Toronto streets.
In the 1994 municipal election, he was defeated in Ward 3 by 28 year old Mario Silva
. The result was very close and subject to several recounts before the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that Silva had won by 15 votes.
O'Donohue's son, Daniel, works for the city of Toronto as an evaluator of expropriated land.
, O'Donohue made news in 2002 as a result of his legal challenge to the Act of Settlement
barring Roman Catholics from the throne of Canada
. He filed an application to the Ontario Superior Court, O'Donohue v. Her Majesty The Queen, calling on the court to strike down the discriminatory sections of the act as being in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
. His case was dismissed in 2003 and his appeal was subsequently denied.
As a member of the City Executive Committee, O’Donohue convinced City Council that $23 million – 20% of the moneys received by the City from the sale of its Jail Farm – should be given to TAF and he was appointed chairman.
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...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
.
Early life
Born in The BurrenThe Burren
The Burren is a karst-landscape region or alvar in northwest County Clare, in Ireland. It is one of the largest karst landscapes in Europe. The region measures approximately 250 square kilometres and is enclosed roughly within the circle made by the villages Ballyvaughan, Kinvara, Tubber, Corofin,...
, County Clare
County Clare
-History:There was a Neolithic civilisation in the Clare area — the name of the peoples is unknown, but the Prehistoric peoples left evidence behind in the form of ancient dolmen; single-chamber megalithic tombs, usually consisting of three or more upright stones...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
(then Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
), O'Donohue graduated as a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
from University College, Galway
National University of Ireland, Galway
The National University of Ireland, Galway is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland...
in 1954. He moved to Toronto in 1956 to pursue his profession as a municipal engineer designing urban services such as roads, water supply, sewage treatment, storm water run-off and waste management.
Inspired by Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Lester B. Pearson
Lester B. Pearson
Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE was a Canadian professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, and politician, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis...
's initiative for a new flag for Canada, O'Donohue joined the Young Liberals in the early 1960s and made many trips to Ottawa with other Young Liberals to support the new flag
Flag of Canada
The national flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, and , is a red flag with a white square in its centre, featuring a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. Its adoption in 1965 marked the first time a national flag had been officially adopted in Canada to replace the Union Flag...
proposal. As one of the party's first advocates for environmental causes, he encouraged the Young Liberals to become active in environmental issues. His 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...
national convention papers on water supply and sewage treatment received national attention.
City Council
He was first elected as a Toronto City CouncilToronto 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....
alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
in the 1966 municipal election. As an engineer, he focused on the need for a clearer understanding of the environment and, as a reformer, encouraged a new approach to local politics. He ran for Toronto mayor in 1972, losing to David Crombie, and again in 1978 to John Sewell
John Sewell
John Sewell, CM is a Canadian political activist and writer on municipal affairs; he was the mayor of Toronto, Ontario from 1978 to 1980.-Background:...
. His 1978 defeat to the left-wing Sewell was seen as a result of vote splitting
Vote splitting
Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate....
between O'Donohue and David Smith
David Paul Smith
David Paul Smith, PC, QC is a Canadian lawyer, politician and Senator.Smith was an alderman on Toronto City Council in the 1970s. He served a period as deputy mayor and president of city council. He ran for Mayor of Toronto in 1978, but was defeated by John Sewell in a three-way split...
, a Liberal
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...
.
O'Donohue and colleague Art Eggleton
Art Eggleton
Arthur "Art" C. Eggleton, PC is a former Canadian Cabinet minister and Mayor of Toronto, and is currently a Senator representing Ontario.-City council:...
had agreed that only one of them should run against Sewell for mayor in 1980. They were to conduct a public opinion poll to determine which of them had the better chance of toppling the incumbent Mayor. However, according to O'Donohue's memoirs, Eggleton broke the pact and unilaterally declared himself a mayoralty candidate forcing O'Donohue to stay out of the race in order not to split the vote.
O'Donohue was returned to City Council following a by-election after the death of City Councillor George Ben
George Ben
George Ben was an Ontario lawyer and political figure. He represented Bracondale and then Humber in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1965 as a Liberal member until his defeat in the 1971 provincial election...
in 1980. He spent the next 14 years working to address the many energy and environmental problems facing urban areas.
In April 1989, O'Donohue introduced a by-law at City Council to ban the manufacture, sale, distribution and use of ozone depleting substances. It was the first such legislation anywhere and became a model for other cities. As a result, he was invited to make a presentation on the Toronto by-law at the Beckman Institute of the National Academies of Science and Engineering, in Irvine, California
Irvine, California
Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...
. While there, he consulted world-renowned chemist and later Nobel laureate Frank Sherwood Rowland
Frank Sherwood Rowland
Frank Sherwood Rowland is an American Nobel laureate and a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. His research is in atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics....
on how to help prevent the dumping of ozone depleting substances into the atmosphere.
In 1992, he presented a motion to City Council to adopt a by-law prohibiting anyone from lying, sleeping or blocking city sidewalks. He argued that the city paid millions of dollars to make sufficient beds available for the homeless and there was no need for anyone to lie or sleep on the sidewalks. The motion lost and sleeping on the sidewalks has remained part of the landscape in downtown Toronto streets.
In the 1994 municipal election, he was defeated in Ward 3 by 28 year old 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...
. The result was very close and subject to several recounts before the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that Silva had won by 15 votes.
After politics
Since leaving politics, O'Donohue operated his own company until 2004, Environmental Probe Ltd., which helped developers fulfill the requirements of environmental assessments and laws.O'Donohue's son, Daniel, works for the city of Toronto as an evaluator of expropriated land.
Republicanism
An active supporter of Citizens for a Canadian RepublicCitizens for a Canadian Republic
Citizens for a Canadian Republic is a not-for-profit Canadian organization founded in 2002 that advocates the replacement of the Canadian monarchy with a head of state who would either be chosen through a general election or elected by parliament...
, O'Donohue made news in 2002 as a result of his legal challenge to the Act of Settlement
Act of Settlement
Act of Settlement may refer to:*Statute of Legal Settlement 1547, legislation regarding the settlement of the poor*Act for the Settlement of Ireland 1652, in response to the Irish Rebellion of 1641...
barring Roman Catholics from the throne of Canada
Monarchy in Canada
The monarchy of Canada is the core of both Canada's federalism and its Westminster-style parliamentary democracy, being the foundation of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Canadian government and each provincial government...
. He filed an application to the Ontario Superior Court, O'Donohue v. Her Majesty The Queen, calling on the court to strike down the discriminatory sections of the act as being in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
. His case was dismissed in 2003 and his appeal was subsequently denied.
Toronto Atmospheric Fund
Following the Changing Atmosphere Conference in July, 1988, O’Donohue embarked a plan to make Toronto a leading world city in urban environmental issues. He convinced City Council to apply to the province for special legislation to set up the Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF). In December 1992, approval was given.As a member of the City Executive Committee, O’Donohue convinced City Council that $23 million – 20% of the moneys received by the City from the sale of its Jail Farm – should be given to TAF and he was appointed chairman.
Works
- Front Row Centre (2000) Abbeyfield Publishers. ISBN 1-894584-03-1
- The Tale of a City - Re-Engineering the Urban Environment (2005) Dundurn Press. ISBN 1-55002-5562
External links
- Tony O'Donohue official web site
- Cardinal takes on bastion of job discrimination - the monarchy, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, July 23, 2007