As the member for Etobicoke–Lakeshore, it is an honour to pay tribute to a former member of provincial Parliament for Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Mr. Edward Thomas Philip.

I also want to mention that Ed’s son is here. Andrew, welcome to Queen’s Park today.

Ed Thomas Philip was a dedicated servant of Etobicoke and of this great province. His constituents clearly recognized and appreciated this, given he was elected for five consecutive terms. On election night in 1990, just having won his fifth term, he spoke plainly about his electoral success, saying, “I’ve been out there and accessible for 12 years.”

Ed was born in Montreal in 1940. He received his BA and master of education degrees from the University of Ottawa and completed his postgraduate work at the University of Toronto.

In reading about his life, it’s clear that Ed excelled at and was very well versed in a broad range of disciplines and vocations.

Prior to his election, Ed oversaw leadership training at the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. He was a freelance writer, broadcaster and member of the Ontario Association for Continuing Education and the Creative Education Foundations. He was also bilingual.

Ed was a five-term member of provincial Parliament with the New Democratic Party, from 1975 to 1995, and was an active member of the New Democratic Party since its founding convention. He was Minister of Municipal Affairs and the Office for the Greater Toronto Area, Minister of Industry, Trade and Technology, and Minister of Transportation in the Rae government.

Prior to the NDP’s electoral victory in 1990, Ed served as opposition critic on a range of portfolios, including housing, rent review, government services, transportation and communications.

He was the government’s financial watchdog, overseeing the Provincial Auditor, Management Board of Cabinet and the Ministry of Government Services, as well as the Ombudsman, and he held the post of deputy whip.

Ed was obviously an exceptionally hard worker. In his long tenure at Queen’s Park, he had the distinction of chairing the Standing Committee on the Administration of Justice and the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. He also served as a member on the following standing committees: procedural affairs, the Ombudsman, the administration of estimates, as well as the Select Committee on the Highway Transportation of Goods and the Select Committee on Retail Store Hours.

Committee work is not usually a widely known function of our Parliament, but it is where the granular detail of legislation and policy is parsed and deliberated on. Good committee work requires a knowledgeable and seasoned parliamentarian, and the good people of Etobicoke–Rexdale certainly had that in Ed Philip.

Politics is, at its core, about people. Ed clearly cared about his constituents, and he cared about the portfolios that he held in government and in opposition.

In a 1983 condominium industry publication, Ed was featured in an article hailing his work ethic and dedication, particularly as it related to issues in the industry. The article highlighted his 10- to 15-hour workdays here at Queen’s Park and at his constituency office in Etobicoke. I would like to quote briefly from it:

“Philip has been a member of the Etobicoke Condominium Association since 1973, and has been involved in rent review and tenant issues, as well as about 2,000 cases for constituents in his riding each year. Philip is a politician who honestly enjoys canvassing, and spends most of his life working, but, ‘it’s not like work,’ he says. His Rexdale riding is one of the largest in the province, and last election, ‘the national press said I had the safest seat in the province,’ a point he is proud to make.”

Before closing, I would like to acknowledge and pay tribute to Ed’s position as a former director of Mental Health Canada. The ongoing work of destigmatizing matters of mental health in this country owes a great deal to the dedication and work of trailblazers like Ed.

On behalf of the Ontario Progressive Conservative caucus, let me again say that it is an honour to pay tribute to this former Etobicoke–Rexdale MPP, Ed Philip. We thank his family for giving so much of Ed Thomas Philip to the people of Ontario, and we give thanks for his life.