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Home | Office Holder | Jim Gordon (politician)
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Gordon served on the town council of Espanola in the 1960s before moving to Sudbury. He was elected to city council there in 1971, and became mayor in 1976. He served until 1981, and ran in that year's provincial election as the Progressive Conservative candidate in the Sudbury constituency. He won that election, and served as a backbench supporter of Bill Davis's government. Gordon supported Larry Grossman at the Progressive Conservative Party's leadership convention of February 1985. Gordon was a cabinet minister in the short-lived government of Frank Miller, serving as Minister of Government Services from May 17 to June 26, 1985. He was not able to accomplish anything of significance before Miller's government was defeated in the house. He served in the legislature until 1987, when he was defeated by Sterling Campbell in the Liberal sweep of David Peterson. In 1991, Gordon ran again as mayor of Sudbury, and defeated incumbent mayor Peter Wong. He served as the city's mayor until 2000, when the city and the Regional Municipality of Sudbury were amalgamated into the new city of Greater Sudbury. He ran for mayor of the new amalgamated city in the 2000 municipal election, and won that election as well. Gordon's tenure as mayor of Sudbury was marked by efforts to diversify the city's mining-based economy. As the city's provincial representative in the early 1980s, he was also a key supporter of the Science North project, which has since become the city's and Northern Ontario's most successful tourist attraction. In Gordon's single term as mayor of the amalgamated Greater Sudbury, however, the city council was somewhat undermined by voter doubts about the effectiveness and the appropriateness of the amalgamation project. Gordon announced his retirement from politics in 2003, and in that fall's municipal election, he was succeeded by David Courtemanche. |