Micheal O'Brien (Canadian politician)

Micheal John O'Brien, a Canadian and also citizen of Ireland (European Union)[13] was born on August 21, 1950, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Toronto, Canada to Barbara O'Brien, an artist, and Edward O'Brien, an engineer and executive of Spar Aerospace's predecessor company. O'Brien's studies include human behaviour and public health including postgraduate studies in the United States.

After graduating with a UofT BSc and a Commercial Pilot's license from Maple Flying School (established by Marion Alice Orr, one of Canada's first women pilots) in Vaughan (now a city) in York Region, Ontario, O'Brien in his early 20s became the Chief Pilot, Specialty Air Services Limited from 1972 to 1979, flying out of what was then called Maple Airport and the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport which is still in operation today.

From 1979 through 1989 O'Brien was a publisher, writer and editor with Maclean Hunter Limited's Business Publishing Division and in 1989 acquired some of the publishing properties including "The Wednesday Report",[14] "The Canadian Yong Astronaut" (terminated in 1992[15]), and "Canadian Aerospace and Defence Technology") he published for Maclean Hunter and merged them into MPRM Group Limited and continued publishing from 1989 to 2004. O'Brien worked for a time as the Director of Operations for the Toronto Cosmetic Surgery Center[16] which he left in 2014 to both work in several Asian countries with The RINJ Foundation while completing postgraduate studies. Currently O'Brien is the editor-in-chief of the global edition of Feminine-Perspective Magazine.[17]

O'Brien was the Vice president of the Southern Alberta office of the Canadian Cancer Society in Medicine Hat, Alberta (Now defunct.) in 1970 under Dr. Paul Racine. Returning to Ontario in 1972 O'Brien undertook an extensive life of Community involvement in Richmond Hill, Ontario as a hockey coach, member of the Civic Improvement Committee of town council as well as the Canada Day Committee. At some point he became involved in helping community members locate missing children and troubled teens. This led to his forming a global civil society Group The RINJ Foundation for which he is today the CEO.[18]

In November 1988 Mr. O’Brien "was declared the winner by 99 votes, was sworn in, and participated in the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement debate in the short-lived First Session of the Thirty-Fourth Parliament". [19] He made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on December 23, 1988.[20]

O'Brien (seated) being sworn in as an MP by Robert Marleau, Clerk of the House of Commons (1988)

In 1988, in the federal riding of York North, O'Brien, endorsed by MP Tony Roman---for whom O'Brien had been one of the community leaders who convinced Roman to run as a "Coalition" independent in 1984—became the candidate[21] for the Canadian federal Progressive Conservative Party. O’Brien, had initially been declared the winner[22] in the riding of York North in the 1988 federal election. Three days later, as a result of a recount supervised by a contingent of the Liberal opponent, candidate Maurizio Bevilacqua, the latter was declared the winner. Mr. O’Brien sought a judicial recount, was declared the winner by 99 votes, was sworn in, and participated in the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement debate[23] in the short-lived First Session of the Thirty-Fourth Parliament. Maurizio Bevilacqua appealed the recount and was subsequently declared the sitting Member by 77 votes (see Journals, April 3, 1989, pp. 2–3[24]). (According to House of Commons of Canada records, both men represented the Federal Riding of York North, O'Brien for the 1st Session and Maurizio Bevilacqua for the subsequent sessions.[25])

O'Brien consulted extensively with the Honourable Erik Nielsen who had encountered a similar situation in 1957. With that precedent O'Brien and his riding association mounted a successful Controverted Election Act Petition to the Ontario Supreme Court. Two Ontario supreme court judges found that the number of irregularly cast ballots in the 1988 election had exceeded Mr. Bevilacqua's 77-vote plurality over Mr. O’Brien. The election was subsequently voided and the cases of O'Brien and Erik Nielsen have been cited as significant Supreme Court precedents in election law. (O'Brien v. Hamel (1990), 73 O.R. (2d) 87 (H.C.J.))[26]

The Brian Mulroney Government eventually declared a by-election for O'Brien and Jean Chrétien.[27] The by-election which took place December 10, 1990, in the Federal Riding of York North saw the election of Maurizio Bevilacqua (Lib York North, Ontario) and Jean Chrétien (Lib) in Beauséjour, New Brunswick as Brian Mulroney introduced the General Sales Tax. The by-election became the "GST by-election" and the key winner became Jean Chrétien who had become the leader of the Liberal Party and Her Majesty's Official Leader of the Opposition.[28][29][30]