Andy Thompson

Andrew Ernest Joseph Thompson (14 December 1924 – 3 February 2016) was a Canadian politician. Thompson was leader of the Ontario Liberal Party and later served as a Senator. He was elected as the Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the west-end Toronto Dovercourt electoral district in 1959. He was elected the Ontario Liberal Party's leader in 1964. His physical health began to fail in late 1966 forcing him to retire as the Liberal leader. He was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1967, forcing him to resign his provincial seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He attracted media attention in 1997 and 1998 for making few appearances in the Senate over the past decade. His health issues never really went away, and gave that as his explanation for his truancy. He became the first Senator ever stripped of his office staff, salary and expense account for truancy, in 1998. A month later he resigned in order to receive his pension. Early life and career Andrew was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1924, the fourth child of Joseph Stanley Thompson and his wife Edith Florence Magill. Andrew and his two older brothers, Robert and Hudson, were educated at Monkton Combe School in England from 1936 to 1939, with Andrew first attending Monkton Combe Junior School from 1936 to 1938. After emigrating to Canada, he attended Oakwood Collegiate in Toronto. He was a student at the University of Toronto from 1942 to 1943 until he joined the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II as a Sub-Lieutenant, serving aboard minesweepers. He was discharged after the war in 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant. He completed his education at Queen's University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947. He received a Master of Social Work from the University of British Columbia in 1949. He worked in the federal civil service, becoming Regional Liaison Officer for the Prairie Provinces, Canadian Federal Department of Citizenship & Immigration and serving as a special assistant to federal Liberal leader Lester B. Pearson. In 1959, he married Amy Riisna whom he met at a Liberal conference in Couchiching. They lived in downtown Toronto on St. George Street and raised one daughter. Provincial politics Thompson was first elected as a Member of Provincial Parliament in the 1959 Ontario election as a candidate of the Ontario Liberal Party in the Toronto riding of Dovercourt.