Family man was a trailblazer

Politician, volunteer, columnist and dentist dead at age 74 Gordon Chong worked for decades to help build a booming city.

Gordon Chong packed more careers, crusades and columns into 74 years than some entire families do.

Chong, who died last Friday, rose from poverty and discrimination, as the product of a 1940s mixed marriage, to prosperity as a dentist and family man. He was also a self-described “right-of-centre conservative,” who, as a Toronto and Metro politician, held senior posts overseeing transit, policing and housing.

Chong had another busy life as a community volunteer with groups including the Toronto Head Tax Action Committee, a body of Chinese-Canadians addressing past racist government policies, and numerous directorships, including board chair of his beloved YMCA of Greater Toronto.

He was a man of opinions, writing columns for the Toronto Star and later the Toronto Sun, and quoted by others, thanks to a blunt way with words that sometimes got him in hot water.

Jeff Chong knows all that, but remembers his father most as a “family man before anything … he imbued such a sense of loyalty and family into his children.

“He bridged two worlds. He endured a pretty tough and rough upbringing, which is far different than the life he (and our mom) were able to provide for his children. And he was proud of that and, of course, we were grateful for that.”

Gordon Chong was born in 1943 to a mother of British heritage, whose family disowned her for marrying a man of Chinese ancestry. Chong was raised in Toronto’s original Chinatown.

The talented athlete and scholar overcame barriers to graduate from University of Toronto’s dentistry school, establishing a busy downtown practice while raising his family in North York.

Paul Godfrey, the business man and former Metro chair, met Chong at a block party and told him that, with his keen interest in politics, he should run for office.

Chong didn’t say much, but knocked on Godfrey’s door at 8a.m. the next day. The meeting set the stage for a 1980 downtown council run that saw Chong defeat an incumbent.

“He could have made more as a dentist, but he became a pioneer in promoting visible minorities in public life. He was a wonderful guy,” Godfrey said.

While he maintained his dental practice, Chong would later serve on Metro council, as a TTC commissioner, then GO Transit chair and fill other roles, including one as a parttime citizenship judge.

He was once forced to apologize for comments linking Roma people with crime. Chong said he was sorry “for the grief it has caused some of the people.”

In 2010, Rob Ford, then mayor, made Chong transit adviser. But Ford rejected a report that said the city had to look at road tolls, congestion fees and other revenue sources to pay for a Sheppard subway extension.

Chong, who wed former city manager Shirley Hoy after his first marriage ended in the 1990s, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2011. His condition worsened over time and, eventually, he started receiving palliative care.

He never lost his love of being outside in the sunshine, even in the recent heat wave, his son said.