Jerry Grafstein : Ask Biography

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Jerahmiel S. "Jerry" Grafstein (born January 2, 1935) is a former Canadian Senator and lawyer.

He is married to Carole (née Sniderman) and has two children, Laurence Stephen and Michael Kevin.

A graduate of the University of Western Ontario and University of Toronto Law School, in 1954, Grafstein and Allan Waters co-founded 1050 CHUM from a floundering station in Toronto and built the CHUM media empire.

Grafstein is a Toronto-based financier, political fundraiser, advisor and "backroom boy" who has worked on numerous political campaigns for the Liberal Party of Canada and Ontario Liberal Party as well as local Toronto politics. A senior advisor to Pierre Trudeau, Grafstein was appointed to the Senate in January 1984 several weeks prior to Trudeau's retirement.

Since the 1960s, he has been a corporate lawyer, specializing in the areas of communications and administrative law. He has founded several media companies around the world, and is a partner in the legal firm Minden Gross LLP.

In 1972, he was one of the founders of Citytv. He was also an organizer of the 2003 Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto concert to help the city recover from the outbreak of SARS.

In 2003, Grafstein and Canada's Consul General in New York at the time, Pamela Wallin, were honored by the York for devoting much of their careers to strengthening the ties between Canada and the United States.

In the 2003 municipal election, Grafstein assisted with the unsuccessful campaign of John Nunziata to become Mayor of Toronto.

In the 2006 Toronto municipal election, Grafstein endorsed City Councillor Jane Pitfield for Mayor of Toronto.

In 2008, Senator Jerry Grafstein started pushing a bill to amend the Library and Archives of Canada Act to require that the National Portrait gallery stay in Ottawa.

He retired as a Senator when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75 on January 2, 2010.

In early 2010, a consortium made up of Grafstein, Raymond Heard and Beryl Wajsman announced a bid to purchase the National Post, Ottawa Citizen and Montreal Gazette from the floundering CanWest media conglomerate.