Gerard Kennedy

Gerard Kennedy ran as a candidate for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 2006 and subsequently served as special advisor on election readiness to Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion. He presently serves as the Critic for Infrastructure, Communities and Cities. 

Prior to his involvement in federal politics Gerard was Minister of Education in Ontario from 2003-2006 and led a province-wide turnaround in publicly-funded education, following a decade of conflict, cutbacks and turmoil.  As Minister, he was responsible for two million students, 4,800 schools and an $18 billion annual budget and served as a member of the Planning and Priorities Board of Cabinet.

First elected as a Member of Provincial Parliament in a 1996 by-election, Gerard won the riding of York South for the Ontario Liberal Party for the first time in its 70-year history. He was re-elected in 1999 and 2003 in the newly redistributed riding of Parkdale-High Park. Gerard quickly became one of the Legislature’s most effective voices serving as Official Opposition Critic for health, education, housing and consumer relations.  Re-elected in 1999 and 2003 for Parkdale-High Park, Gerard was also vice-chair of the successful 2003 Liberal election campaign.

From 1983 to 1996, Gerard served as the original executive director of the first Canadian Food Bank in Edmonton and then at the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto.  Gerard worked with social service organizations, religious groups, and corporate CEOs to eliminate hunger. Without a dime of government money, he became responsible for distributing $30 million worth of food annually, reaching over 150,000 people every month. He created the national system to distribute industry surplus food across the country, “brown paper bag” public food drives, a Canada-wide “hunger-count” and detailed research surveys of families on the margins. He also participated in local initiatives to develop food banks in Canada and abroad.

In 1992, Toronto Life Magazine named Mr. Kennedy one of the year’s Top 50 Influential People. He was also named “Newsmaker of the Year” by the Toronto Star in 1993 and recognized by the Toronto Star as one of the city’s “Torontonians of Distinction” in 2002.

Gerard served as Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University and has guest lectured at several universities and colleges, and provided key note addresses to a variety of conferences.

Born and raised in the town of The Pas, Manitoba, Gerard lives with his wife Jeanette Arsenault-Kennedy, an early childhood educator, and their two children, in Toronto.

Under the cover of a Speech from the Throne devoid of content the federal government slipped out some hard facts about failed job creation that Stephen Harper would prefer Canadians didn’t notice, Liberal Infrastructure Critic Gerard Kennedy said today.

Toronto – Gerard Kennedy, M.P. for Parkdale-High Park is hosting a next day “Budget Breakfast” to allow area residents to review and give feedback on the 2010 Federal Budget which will be presented to Parliament on Thursday March 4th in Ottawa.

At the Community Council meeting on February 18, Gerard released a 8-page report that details his parliamentary and community initiatives and activities since October.

Liberal MPs today called on the Harper government to increase funding for the federal program to prevent and reduce homelessness, and commit to sustained, long term funding.