Former MPP named justice of the peace

Liberal government appoints former Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock Liberal MPP Rick Johnson

A former Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP has been appointed as a justice of the peace.

Rick Johnson has been assigned as a justice of the peace to Oshawa, effective Aug. 9.

He was one of 25 new justices of the peace announced Friday by the Ministry of the Attorney General.

Johnson, a former musician and public school board trustee who had served as chairman of the Trillium Lakelands District School Board, was the giant killer who, as Liberal candidate, defeated then Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory in a March 5, 2009 byelection in the riding.

The riding’s MPP Laurie Scott had stepped aside in January 2009 to provide a clear path for Tory as the party leader to have a seat at Queen’s Park after Tory failed to win a seat in the 2007 provincial election. The riding was supposed to be a safe seat but voters turned against the ploy and elected Johnson with 15,482 votes to 14,576 for Tory after enough New Democratic Party supporters swung their votes to the governing Liberals, coupled with some Progressive Conservative supporters who stayed home and didn’t vote.

Johnson then served as parliamentary assistant to Infrastructure Minister Bob Chiarelli.

Johnson was swept out in the 2011 provincial election by Scott by a margin of nearly 6,000 votes.

He also was the runnerup to Scott in the 2007 and 2014 provincial elections.

The Pontypool man has since served as a community representative on the Durham College board of governors.

DAVE FLAHERTY/POSTMEDIA NETWORK FILES Then premier Dalton McGuinty and then Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock MPP Rick Johnson at the Lindsay Recreation Complex on Sept. 9, 2010. Johnson, who lives in Pontypool, has been appointed by the Liberal government as a justice of the peace and will...