Tony Silipo

Tony Silipo (August 10, 1957 – March 10, 2012) was a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1999 representing the New Democratic Party in the downtown Toronto riding of Dovercourt. In 1999 he was appointed to the Workplace Safety and Insurance appeals tribunal. He died in 2012 from a brain cancer.

Background Silipo attended Bloor Collegiate Institute in Toronto, and was educated at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall at York University, and began practising law in 1984. He also served as a trustee on the Toronto Board of Education from 1978 to 1990, and was its chair from 1989 to 1990.

Politics Silipo was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1990 provincial election as the New Democratic Party Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the Toronto riding of Dovercourt. He joined the Bob Rae cabinet as Chair of the Management Board from July 31, 1991 to September 23, 1992, Minister of Education from October 15, 1991 to February 3, 1993 and Minister of Community and Social Services from February 3, 1993 to June 26, 1995.

As Education Minister, one of Silipo's first decisions was to restore national indicator achievement tests, which had previously been removed by his predecessor, Marion Boyd. He was also an active promoter of "de-streaming" in an effort to stop the practice of "streaming" children of immigrant and working-class families into non-academic courses of study. He ran for the leadership of the NDP in 1996, but was unable to build a strong support base and finished fourth behind Howard Hampton, Frances Lankin and Peter Kormos. Following the contest, Silipo was appointed deputy leader of the party.

In 1999, a reduction in ridings in Ontario resulted in the elimination of the Dovercourt riding. Silipo contested the new riding of Davenport in the 1999 election against Liberal Tony Ruprecht. He lost by nearly 5,000 votes.

Cabinet positions

Later life He was appointed to the Workplace Safety and Insurance appeals tribunal by Labour Minister Chris Stockwell in 1999. In 2003, he became president of the newly formed Federation of Calabrese in Ontario. He died in 2012 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. He was 54.