A force in Toronto and Ontario politics
A priest and an elected official, Shea sat on police commission, was president of the CNE in 1986
Derwyn Shea, an Anglican priest and longtime Toronto politician, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 77. Shea was ordained in 1966, served in several dioceses and sat on Toronto’s Planning Board before he was elected alderman in Toronto’s Ward 1in 1982. His campaign slogan was “I live here” — an attack on another candidate who did not.
He swept the polls three years later to win a seat on Metro council representing High Park-Swansea.
“I think hard work, honesty and the fact that some people want to run a campaign that pushes questionable information helped us win this,” Shea said after beating an NDP candidate in 1985.
Shea was a member of the male-dominated council when it finally agreed that the word alderman was sexist and should be replaced.
“Traditions are important, but at this moment in time the title alderman should be laid to rest,” Shea said then.
The board of directors of the Canadian National Exhibition elected Shea as its president in 1986. He promised a bright future for the “old lady by the lake” and said the CNE needed more of a multicultural flair to make it a truly national attraction.
While sitting on the Toronto Police Commission, Shea took exception to the police morality squad’s decision to monitor sentences that judges were handing to drug traffickers.
“We’re not living in a police state,” Shea said. “The police don’t decide what is justice.”
Shea announced he was leaving munici- pal politics in 1994 to seek the provincial Progressive Conservative nomination in High Park—Swansea.
“The timing is right” to leave municipal politics, Shea said presciently. “There will be a change of government in this province. That much is clear. And I certainly want to be part of the (Mike) Harris team.”
A year later he was, after beating NDP incumbent Elaine Ziemba. She had been a cabinet minister in Bob Rae’s one-term government defeated by Harris, who then became premier of Canada’s mostpopulous province. Shea said his campaign “really took fire.” “I grew up here and I think people felt they were electing a hometown boy who they know and are prepared to trust.”
Shea retired from politics in 1999 to devote more time to his other calling, as priest and rector of an Anglican parish. In 2005, he officiated Harris’s wedding to his long-time companion, Laura Maguire, in Woodbridge.
“Laura and I were saddened to hear of Derwyn’s passing. He was not only my colleague but the friend we asked to marry us 10 years ago this summer. We will miss him,” Harris said in an email Tuesday.
Shea died Saturday at Toronto General Hospital. He was predeceased by his wife, Julia, and leaves behind his companion Christine Schubert, according to the death notice in the Star.
Afuneral will be conducted by the Archbishop of Toronto and held at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church on Saturday at 11 a.m. With files from Rob Benzie and Star Staff