Former labour minister had ‘big heart, big vision’
Robert (Bob) Elgie, a prominent cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative governments of Bill Davis and Frank Miller, has died.
Elgie, who was 84, was both a lawyer and a brain surgeon, served as an MPP from 1977 to 1985, and was chair of the Ontario Press Council from 2006 to his death Wednesday.
“He’s got to be the smartest guy I’ve ever met,” Don McCurdy, executive director of the Ontario Press Council, said Thursday.
Elgie, who was suffering from congestive heart failure, had a distinguished career as a doctor, lawyer, public servant, politician and educator. He was named to the Order of Canada in 2003.
Very much a red Tory, Elgie was a labour minister respected by politicians from both sides of the Ontario legislature, as well as by unions.
He was an activist minister who made “unprecedented” changes to Ontario’s Human Rights Code and occupational health and safety laws that framed labour and human right policies, a former adviser recalled.
This did not always sit well with members of his party, who bristled when human rights officers were granted the right to investigate and arbitrate reports of workplace discrimination.
“He was a great man. He had a big heart, a big vision . . . he was very highly thought of when he was labour minister,” said Julie Davis, retired from the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Elgie was a public servant extraordinaire, said John Tory, former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party and principal secretary to former premier Davis.
“He wore his heart on his sleeve and he was proud to do so . . . And I think a lot of Ontarians should be glad he did because he brought a set of values to public life that never wavered and that always saw every individual as worthy, that everybody was to be treated with respect,” said Tory. Elgie was made head of the Ontario Workers’ Compensation Board after he left politics and subsequently chaired the Nova Scotia Workers’ Compensation Board. In addition, he was on the medical teaching staff at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University, and chief of medical staff at Scarborough General Hospital. With his broad education in law and medicine, he founded and was the first director of Dalhousie University’s Health Law Institute from 1991 to 1996. “We talk about people being extraordinary and remarkable . . . but with Bob, he really was,” said Joanne DeLaurentiis, president and CEO of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada, who was chief of staff to Elgie when he was minister of labour. “I think he was about 48 years old when he decided that in neurosurgery he wasn’t making as great a contribution as he could be making, and he became a politician,” she said. DeLaurentiis said despite his many accomplishments, Elgie was a humble man. “His perspective was one of ‘We’re here to make good public policy. We’re here to improve the province, not to improve the position of the party we represent,’ ” she said. Elgie is survived by his wife, Nancy, and five children.