Adam G. Vaughan[1] (born July 3, 1961) is a Canadian politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 2014 until 2021. Vaughan represented the Toronto area riding of Spadina—Fort York as a member of the Liberal Party. He previously sat on Toronto City Council, representing Ward 20 Trinity—Spadina from 2006 until he resigned in 2014 to run in a federal by-election for Trinity—Spadina.

Adam Vaughan
Vaughan in 2017
Member of Parliament
for Spadina—Fort York
Trinity—Spadina (2014-2015)
In office
June 30, 2014 – September 20, 2021
Preceded byOlivia Chow
Succeeded byKevin Vuong
Toronto City Councillor
for Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina
In office
December 1, 2006 – May 13, 2014
Preceded byMartin Silva
Succeeded byCeta Ramkhalawansingh
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development (Housing)
In office
January 30, 2017 – September 19, 2021
MinisterJean-Yves Duclos
Ahmed Hussen
Preceded byTerry Duguid
Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister (Intergovernmental Affairs)
In office
December 2, 2015 – January 27, 2017
MinisterJustin Trudeau
Preceded byPaul Calandra
Succeeded byPeter Schiefke
Personal details
Born
Adam G. Vaughan

(1961-07-03) July 3, 1961 (age 63)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Political partyLiberal (2014–present)
ResidenceNiagara, Toronto[1]
OccupationJournalist

During his time as an MP, Vaughan served as the parliamentary secretary to prime minister on intergovernmental affairs from 2015 to 2017, and to the minister of families, children and social development on housing and urban affairs from 2017 to 2021. Prior to his political career, he was a radio and television journalist. In August 2021, Vaughan announced that he would not seek re-election to Parliament.[2]

Background

edit

Vaughan is married to Nicole Anatol and has a son and a daughter from previous relationships. He was previously married to journalist Suhana Meharchand.[3] His father, Colin Vaughan, was a noted architect, television journalist and former city councillor, who was CityTV's political reporter until his death in 2000.

Media career (1982 – 2006)

edit

Adam Vaughan worked at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute's radio station CKLN from 1982 to 1987, and was manager of the station from 1985 to 1987. He joined CITY-TV in 1987 as a producer of CityWide. He left in 1989 to join the board of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters.

In 1990, he joined Metro Morning on CBL as a segment producer. He subsequently joined CBLT in 1994, covering City Hall as a municipal reporter, producer, and director. Vaughan has covered Toronto Police Service, Toronto City Hall, Queen's Park and Parliament Hill in his career. He returned to the Citytv team in 2000.

Vaughan has written for Toronto Life magazine and the Toronto Star. Before becoming a journalist, Adam Vaughan was a cartoonist for Books in Canada, Quill and Quire, Canadian Forum and several other publications.

After Marilyn Lastman, the wife of the then mayor of Toronto Mel Lastman, was caught shoplifting from an Eaton's store in Toronto, the mayor threatened to kill Vaughan if he reported on his family.[4][5]

Political career (2006 – 2021)

edit

Municipal politics (2006 – 2014)

edit

Vaughan ran in Trinity—Spadina - Ward 20 in the 2006 municipal election. The seat had been vacated by Olivia Chow who left the city for federal politics. He won the seat defeating Helen Kennedy, Chow's executive assistant, by 2,300 votes.

After the 2010 mayoral election, Vaughan was an outspoken critic of then-Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

As a member of City Council Vaughan sat on the Toronto Police Services Board,[6] the Planning and Growth Management Committee, the Toronto Arts Council, Artscape Board, the Board of Trustees for the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Harbourfront Centre Board. Additionally he sat on the city's Heritage Board, and the city's Preservation Board.

Federal politics (2014 – 2021)

edit

In 2014, he ran as the Liberal candidate in a federal by-election to succeed New Democratic Party MP Olivia Chow, who had resigned to run for Mayor of Toronto. At the time. the Liberals had their fewest MPs in history.[7][8] Vaughan resigned his city council seat on May 13, 2014, several days after the Trinity—Spadina by-election was called.[9][10] He defeated NDP candidate Joe Cressy by 6,745 votes, a nearly 2-to-1 margin.[11]

Vaughan was quickly promoted to the Liberal front bench as critic for urban affairs and housing.[12]

In the October 2015 federal election, Vaughan ran in Spadina—Fort York, essentially the southern portion of his old riding. His main opponent was Chow, the person who he had replaced twice, first on Toronto City Council and then later as MP. Once the election was called, Vaughan initially trailed Chow in public opinion polls. However, on election day, in part due to a massive surge of Liberal support in Toronto, he defeated Chow convincingly, taking 54.5% of the vote to Chow's 27.4%.[13][14]

On December 2, 2015, he was appointed the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister for intergovernmental affairs.[15]

In August, 2021, Vaughan announced he would not be seeking re-election in the 2021 Canadian federal election.[16] He was succeeded by Kevin Vuong, who was nominated as a Liberal, but saw party support for him dropped after the revelation of sexual assault charges against him in 2019.

Electoral record

edit

Federal elections

edit
2019 Canadian federal election: Spadina—Fort York
Party Candidate Votes % ±% Expenditures
Liberal Adam Vaughan 33,822 55.8 +1.14 $100,040.70
New Democratic Diana Yoon 12,188 20.1 -7.18 $35,526.97
Conservative Frank Fang 10,680 17.6 +1.87 none listed
Green Dean Maher 3,174 5.2 +3.14 none listed
People's Robert Stewart 672 1.1 - none listed
Independent Marcela Ramirez 114 0.2 - none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit 60,650 100.0
Total rejected ballots 339
Turnout 60,989 67.7
Eligible voters 90,022
Liberal hold Swing +4.16
Source: Elections Canada[17][18]
2015 Canadian federal election: Spadina—Fort York
Party Candidate Votes % ±% Expenditures
Liberal Adam Vaughan 30,141 54.66  30.27
New Democratic Olivia Chow 15,047 27.28  22.36
Conservative Sabrina Zuniga 8,673 15.73  5.13
Green Sharon Danley 1,137 2.06  2.11
PACT Michael Nicula 91 0.17
Marxist–Leninist Nick Lin 59 0.11
Total valid votes/expense limit 55,148 100.0     $205,892.35
Total rejected ballots 268 0.48
Turnout 55,416 73.93
Eligible voters 74,958
Source: Elections Canada[19][20]
Canadian federal by-election, June 30, 2014: Trinity—Spadina
Resignation of Olivia Chow
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Adam Vaughan 18,547 53.66 +30.27
New Democratic Joe Cressy 11,802 34.14 −20.37
Conservative Benjamin Sharma 2,022 5.85 −10.96
Green Camille Labchuk 1,880 5.43 +1.05
Christian Heritage Linda Groce-Gibbons 174 0.50 – 
Independent John "The Engineer" Turmel 141 0.41 – 
Total valid votes/expense limit 34,566 100.00 – 
Total rejected ballots 111 0.32 −0.12
Turnout 34,677 31.78 −37.02
Eligible voters 110,252
Liberal gain from New Democratic Swing +25.32
By-election due to the resignation of Olivia Chow to run in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election.
Source: Elections Canada[21]



Municipal elections

edit
2010 Toronto election, Ward 20
Candidate Votes %
Adam Vaughan 16,486 74.523%
Mike Yen 3,601 16.278%
Dean Maher 1,233 5.574%
Roman Polochansky 487 2.201%
Ken Osadchuk 315 1.424%
Total 22,122 100%
2006 Toronto election, Ward 20[22]
Candidate Votes %
Adam Vaughan 7,834 51.7
Helen Kennedy 5,334 35.2
Desmond Cole 750 4.9
Chris Ouellette 375 2.5
Joseph Tuan 359 2.4
Devendra Sharma 231 1.5
Douglas Lowry 193 1.3
Carmin Priolo 91 0.6

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Search For Contributions". Elections Canada. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  2. ^ "3 Liberal MPs say they will not run in the next federal election | CBC News".
  3. ^ Kuitenbrouwer, P. May 18, 2006. "No longer a journalist, now candidate for council" Archived August 30, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. National Post. Retrieved June 1, 2007.
  4. ^ Timothy Appleby, "The mayor goes ballistic: Death threat against report has Lastman in hot water", Globe and Mail, p. A1, A3, 13 May 1999.
  5. ^ "Toronto mayor threatens CBC reporter". CBC News. November 10, 2000. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
  6. ^ "Toronto Police Services Board - Past Members".
  7. ^ "Adam Vaughan wins Liberal nomination for Trinity-Spadina". CBC News. May 3, 2014.
  8. ^ Harper, Tim (April 17, 2014). "Adam Vaughan to run for Liberals in federal byelection". Toronto Star.
  9. ^ "Adam Vaughan to Run in Trinity-Spadina By-election". AM 640. May 11, 2014.
  10. ^ "Adam Vaughan, on Rob Ford's legacy". Toronto Life. May 14, 2014. Archived from the original on May 15, 2014.
  11. ^ Delacourt, Susan; Vincent, Donovan; Benzie, Robert (June 30, 2014). "Adam Vaughan, Arnold Chan lead Liberals to byelection wins". Toronto Star.
  12. ^ Fekete, Jason (September 17, 2014). "Q and A: MP Adam Vaughan on what Toronto city council taught him". Ottawa Citizen.
  13. ^ Laurie Monsebraaten (October 19, 2015). "Liberal candidate Adam Vaughan wins in Spadina-Fort York". The Toronto Star. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
  14. ^ "Elections Canada Preliminary Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
  15. ^ "Bill Blair, Adam Vaughan among new parliamentary secretaries". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
  16. ^ Dhanraj, Travis; Paas-Lang, Christian (August 8, 2021). "Toronto MP Adam Vaughan will not run in next federal election". cbc.ca.
  17. ^ "List of confirmed candidates". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
  18. ^ "Election Night Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  19. ^ Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for Spadina—Fort York, 30 September 2015
  20. ^ Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ "Elections Canada". Elections Canada. October 3, 2014. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  22. ^ City Clerk's Official Declaration 2006 Archived 2011-06-07 at the Wayback Machine
edit