Tony Ruprecht

Tony Ruprecht (born December 12, 1942 in Konstantinow, Poland) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 1981, and currently represents the riding of Davenport for the Liberal Party.

Ruprecht moved to Canada with his parents in 1949 after attending school in Germany. He was educated at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario (receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969), Wichita State University and Miami University, doing Ph.D. work at the latter institution from 1971 to 1973. He was an Assistant Professor at Nebraska West University, and has taught Political Science at York University, Carleton University and Laurentian University; he often makes reference to figures such as John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his parliamentary speeches. He has authored two books: The Graduate School Game (1976) and Toronto's Many Faces (1990), the latter being an overview of Toronto's multicultural communities. Ruprecht is also a member of the Knights of Malta.

Ruprecht began his political career at the municipal level. He is a past chair and advisor to the Parkdale Property Tax Reform Committee, and was a senior alderman in Parkdale region of the City of Toronto from 1978 to 1981.

Ruprecht was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1981 provincial election, defeating New Democrat Jan Dukszta by nearly 1000 votes in the riding of Parkdale; this contest was said to have been extremely nasty, with some of Ruprecht's campaign members making unwarranted personal attacks against Dukszta. Ruprecht was re-elected in the 1985 election, by a much greater margin.

The Liberals formed government after the 1985 election, and Ruprecht was appointed a Minister without Portfolio responsible for Disabled Persons and Multiculturalism on June 26, 1985. He was re-elected by a landslide the 1987 election, defeating his nearest opponent by almost 10,000 votes, but was subsequently dropped from cabinet.

The Liberals were upset by the NDP in the provincial election of 1990. Even though most surrounding ridings were won by the NDP, Ruprecht managed to retain Parkdale by 523 votes over NDP candidate Sheena Weir. He was again re-elected by a greater margin in the 1995 election, as the NDP lost support in most of the province. The Progressive Conservatives won this election, and Ruprecht remained in opposition.

In 1996, Ruprecht was the only member of the Liberal caucus to support Dalton McGuinty's bid for the party leadership going into the leadership convention. McGuinty eventually won the contest after five ballots, although Ruprecht was not subsequently promoted in caucus. He initially planned to run for the redistributed riding of Parkdale--High Park in the 1999 election, but was asked to step aside in favour of star candidate Gerard Kennedy. Instead, he ran against NDP incumbent Tony Silipo in the riding of Davenport, after defeating human-rights lawyer Rocco Galati for the Liberal nomination.

Many expected that the battle between Silipo and Ruprecht would be close, but it was not -- Ruprecht won the election by over 4000 votes. The Progressive Conservatives (who have a very limited support base in Davenport) again won the election, and Ruprecht remained in opposition.

Ruprecht was returned for a seventh time in the 2003 election, defeating NDP candidate Jordan Berger by over 8000 votes. The Liberals won a majority in this election, and there were some rumours that McGuinty might re-appoint Ruprecht to Cabinet as a reward for his early support. This did not occur; in fact, Ruprecht was not even given a parliamentary assistant position.

Tony Ruprecht is an enigma for many who follow Ontario politics. He makes very few speeches in the legislature, and is not well respected outside of his constituency -- or, indeed, among other members of his own party. He is also regarded by many as a somewhat eccentric social conservative, philosophically out of step with the mainstream of the Ontario Liberal Party. Most Toronto newspapers strongly endorsed McGuinty's decision to keep him out of cabinet. Nonetheless, Ruprecht has developed a powerful electoral machine in his constituency, and has survived numerous challenges from NDP candidates. His unexpectedly strong victory over Tony Silipo in 1999 revealed him as a very skilled campaigner, his reputation notwithstanding.