Critic for Energy and Climate Action.
● Voted Best MPP by readers of NOW Magazine twice.
● Peter was the NDP critic for energy and for climate change issues. He’s a leader in the fight to end the privatization of Hydro, keep communities safe from toxins and protect our future from the effects of climate change.
● Peter has also served as Jack Layton’s climate change advisor, a Toronto city councillor and the executive director of Greenpeace Canada. He’s done government relations for the Ontario Nurses Association and chaired Toronto’s Board of Health.
● Peter has an adult son, Anton, and lives with his partner, Shawn Kerwin. She’s a professor and theatre designer.
Some of Peter’s accomplishments for Toronto-Danforth and the Province, include:
● Stopping a high voltage transmission line from being built along Donlands Avenue
● Introduced important pieces of legislation to fight the climate crisis including bills to:
o Ban fracking
o Make it easier to sue fossil fuel companies for the damage they create
o Accelerate climate action through the use of public sector purchasing power and other tools at the province’s disposal
● Secured the right for high school students to use ‘Gay Straight Alliances’ as a title for their in-school clubs organized to promote diversity and oppose homophobia
● Pressured the previous government to expand rent control to new units in Ontario that were excluded by the Mike Harris era rent control limits
● Secured all-party support in the legislature for his resolution making June 22 Chinese Canadian Head Tax Redress Day in Ontario to recognize the historic injustice of a head tax imposed on Chinese immigrants
● Led the successful fight to expand bereavement leave for parents whose children pass away, correcting a long-standing wrong
● Discovered and revealed large-scale criminal destruction of government documents by the McGuinty government leading to charges against prominent government figures as the NDP representative on the inquiry into the gas plant scandal
● Successfully setting up mobile offices to serve constituents
● Leading the fight to stop door-to-door energy marketers
Before being elected as MPP, Peter:
● Wrote the federal NDP’s Kyoto plan as Jack Layton’s Climate Advisor. This was a framework to meet the climate targets and put people to work in Canada
● Led the fight for smoke-free food courts, bars and restaurants as chair of Toronto’s Board of Health
● As city councillor got the City of Toronto to set up its very successful Better Buildings Partnership for large-scale energy retrofits of commercial and institutional buildings. This led to thousands of jobs created along with the cutting of thousands of tons of greenhouse gas emissions
● Successfully pushed City Council to restore the Chester Springs Marsh in the Don Valley south of the Bloor Viaduct, the flagship project of “Bring Back the Don”
● Supported and approved the construction of many hundreds of social housing and seniors housing units in the riding that has made a huge difference in the lives of many in our community
● Successfully fought to block or shut down some of the worst polluting industries in our community including garbage incinerators and Darling Rendering
