Brian Masse

Brian S. Masse MP (born July 9, 1968) is a Canadian politician. He has served in the House of Commons of Canada since 2002, representing the riding of Windsor West as a member of the New Democratic Party.

Brian Masse MP
Masse in 2023
Member of Parliament for Windsor West
Incumbent
Assumed office May 13, 2002
Preceded by	Herb Gray
Windsor City Councillor
In office December 1, 1997 – May 13, 2002 Serving with Peter Carlesimo
Preceded by	Sheila Wisdom
Succeeded by	Ronald Jones
Personal details
Born	(1968-07-09) July 9, 1968 (age 56) Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Political party	New Democratic Party
Spouse	Terry Chow
Children	2
Residence(s)	Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater	University of Windsor Wilfrid Laurier University
Profession	Member of Parliament

Early life and career

Masse was born in Windsor, Ontario. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1991 and has completed coursework for a Master of Arts degree at the University of Windsor.^[1] During the 1990s, he was a job developer for the Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities and a program coordinator for the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County.^[2]

Masse was elected for Ward 2 of the Windsor City Council in 1997 and was re-elected in 2000. In 1998, he played a prominent role in preventing a rock-crushing operation from opening in the Wellington Avenue area.^[3]

In May 2001, the Windsor City Council unanimously approved Masse's motion to prevent school boards from selling vacant property lots at the highest market value. His purpose was to dissuade boards from closing schools, though some criticized the motion as working against taxpayer interests.^[4] Masse later called for a referendum on a proposed new arena project, but this was not accepted by council.^[5]

Masse is married to Terry Chow, with whom he has two children.^[6]

Member of Parliament

Masse joined the federal New Democratic Party in 1997 and was first elected to the Canadian Parliament in a by-election held on May 13, 2002.^[7] The election was called after the resignation of Herb Gray, a long-time Liberal cabinet minister who had been a member of Parliament (MP) since 1962. Masse won the NDP nomination without opposition and defeated Liberal candidate Richard Pollock by 2,477 votes to win the seat.^[8] He was re-elected by a greater margin in the 2004 general election. Masse's success in 2002 was partly due to support from Joe Comartin, a fellow Windsor New Democrat who was elected to the House of Commons in the 2000 federal election.^[9] In 2002–03, Masse supported Comartin's bid for the NDP leadership.^[10]

Masse served as the NDP critic for Auto Policy, Canada Border Services, and Customs in the 38th Canadian Parliament. He also became a member of the newly formed all-party "Border Caucus", examining aspects of Canada-U.S. trade relations.^[11] In 2004, he introduced a motion to restrict pharmaceutical companies from renewing their patent protection.^[12]

During his first campaign for the House of Commons, the Windsor Star ran an editorial opposing him as "a bench-warmer, a yes-man, a political careerist".^[13] Two years later, however, a Star columnist wrote that Masse had "vastly exceeded expectations and quickly developed into an able, hard-working representative who has stayed on top of riding issues."^[14]

Masse was re-elected in the 2006 federal election with an increased majority over Liberal Werner Keller. He served as NDP Deputy Industry Critic. After the election, Masse and Comartin spoke out against the provincial NDP's decision to remove Canadian Auto Workers leader Buzz Hargrove from the party.^[15]

Masse has criticized Industry Minister Maxime Bernier's plans to deregulate Canada's telecommunications market and ease restrictions on foreign ownership, arguing that the reforms could result in a small number of companies controlling the Canadian industry.^[16]

Since 2015, Masse has sat on the NDP frontbench as the critic for Innovation, Science and Economic Development.^[17]

Masse was re-elected in the 2019 Canadian federal election and the 2021 Canadian federal election, on both occasions finishing ahead of former Liberal MPP Sandra Pupatello.^[18][19]

Electoral record

Federal

Graph of election results in Windsor West which Masse ran in (minor parties that never got 2% of the vote or didn't run consistently are omitted)

v t e 2021 Canadian federal election: Windsor West
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Brian Masse	21,702	44.1	+4.0	$88,457.01
	Liberal	Sandra Pupatello	13,670	27.9	-8.4	$86,067.85
	Conservative	Anthony Orlando	9,436	19.1	—	none listed
	People's	Matthew Giancola	4,080	8.0	+6.2	$5,606.67
	Marxist–Leninist	Margaret Villamizar	156	0.1	+0.08	$0.00
Total valid votes/Expense limit			48,693	99.0	–	$120,365.34
Total rejected ballots			504	1.0
Turnout			49,197	53.4
Eligible voters			92,207
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+6.2
Source: Elections Canada[20]

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election: Windsor West
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Brian Masse	20,800	40.03	-11.32	$105,980.25
	Liberal	Sandra Pupatello	18,878	36.33	+11.08	$107,376.65
	Conservative	Henry Lau	9,925	19.10	-1.65	–
	Green	Quinn Hunt	1,325	2.55	+0.24	–
	People's	Darryl Burrel	958	1.84	–	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Margaret Villamizar	76	0.15	-0.20	–
Total valid votes/expense limit			51,962	98.93
Total rejected ballots			560	1.07	+0.46
Turnout			52,522	55.32	+0.55
Eligible voters			94,944
	New Democratic hold		Swing		-11.20
Source: Elections Canada[21][22]

2015 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Brian Masse	24,085	51.35	-2.98	$80,089.86
	Liberal	Dave Sundin	11,842	25.25	+14.36	$29,218.35
	Conservative	Henry Lau	9,734	20.75	-10.89	$16,790.47
	Green	Cora LaRussa	1,083	2.31	-0.45	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Margaret Villamizar	161	0.34	-0.04	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			46,905	100.0		$222,985.73
Total rejected ballots			284	–	–
Turnout			47,189	–	–
Eligible voters			86,166
Source: Elections Canada[23][24]
	New Democratic Party hold

2011 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Brian Masse	21,592	54.33	+1.79	–
	Conservative	Lisa Lumley	12,577	31.64	+9.06	–
	Liberal	Melanie Deveau	4,327	10.89	-7.70	–
	Green	Alishia Fox	1,096	2.76	-2.92	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Margaret Villamizar	153	0.38	+0.09	–
Total valid votes			39,745	100.00	–
Total rejected ballots			257	0.64	-0.06
Turnout			40,002	49.13	+1.80
Eligible voters			81,428	–	–
	New Democratic Party hold

v t e 2008 Canadian federal election: Windsor West
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Brian Masse	20,791	52.5%	+3.01%	$55,997
	Conservative	Lisa Lumley	8,954	22.6%	+2.49%	$61,153
	Liberal	Larry Horwitz	7,357	18.6%	−6.79%	$52,616
	Green	John Esposito	2,253	5.7%	+2.67%	$132
	Communist	Elizabeth Rowley	125	0.3%		$373
	Marxist–Leninist	Margaret Villamizar	116	0.3%	+0.07%
Total valid votes			39,596	99.3%
Total rejected ballots			281	0.7%
Turnout			39 877	47.3%
Electors on the lists			84 245
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

v t e 2006 Canadian federal election: Windsor West
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Brian Masse	23,608	49.49	+3.52	$76,342
	Liberal	Werner Keller	12,110	25.39	−5.93	$55,858
	Conservative	Al Teshuba	9,592	20.11	+1.20	$77,898
	Green	Jillana Bishop	1,444	3.03	−0.47	$2,450
	Progressive Canadian	Chris Schnurr	614	1.29	–	$731
	Independent	Habib Zaidi	224	0.47	–	$3,631
	Marxist–Leninist	Enver Villamizar	108	0.23	−0.07
Total valid votes			47,700	99.31
Total rejected ballots			329	0.69	+0.08
Turnout			48,029	57.29	+3.20
Electors on the lists			83,839
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

v t e 2004 Canadian federal election: Windsor West
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Brian Masse	20,297	45.97	+30.01	$77,487
	Liberal	Richard Pollock	13,831	31.32	−22.80	$74,197
	Conservative	Jordan Katz	8,348	18.91	−9.63	$69,771
	Green	Rob Spring	1,545	3.50		$4,721
	Marxist–Leninist	Enver Villamizar	134	0.30		$300
Total valid votes			44,155	99.39
Total rejected ballots			273	0.61	0.00
Turnout			44,428	54.09	+11.08
Electors on the lists			82,143
Percentage change figures are factored for redistribution. Conservative Party percentages are contrasted with the combined Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative percentages from 2000.
Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

v t e Canadian federal by-election, May 13, 2002: Windsor West
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Brian Masse	14,021	42.69	+26.79	$65,195
	Liberal	Richard Pollock	11,544	35.15	−19.06	$64,964
	Alliance	Rick Fuschi	5,420	16.50	−6.45	$60,657
	Progressive Conservative	Ian West	957	2.91	−2.62	$11,212
	Green	Chris Holt	655	1.99	–	$9,246
	Christian Heritage	Allan James	249	0.76	–	$2,072
Total valid votes			32,846	99.39
Total rejected ballots			200	0.61
Turnout			33,046	43.01
Electors on the lists			76,825
	New Democratic Party gain from Liberal

Municipal

v t e 2000 Windsor municipal election: Council, Ward Two (two members elected)
Candidate	Votes	%
(x)Brian Masse	4,908	32.36
(x)Peter Carlesimo	3,430	22.61
Jim Bennett	2,861	18.86
Graham Wilson	1,274	8.40
Lawrence Holland	1,144	7.54
Frank DiPierdomenico	714	4.71
Kevin Flood	373	2.46
Bob Harper	336	2.22
Bowen Alkemade	128	0.84
Total votes	15,168	100.00

Results provided by the City of Windsor.^[25]

v t e 1997 Windsor municipal election: Council, Ward Two (two members elected)
Candidate	Votes	%
Brian Masse	3,425	26.20
(x) Peter Carlesimo	2,865	21.91
Jim Bennett	2,491	19.05
Rolly Marentette	1,613	12.34
George Dadamo	1,587	12.14
Gail Zdyb	597	4.57
Robert Potomski	496	3.79
Total votes	13,074	100.00

Results are provided by the City of Windsor.^[25]

Electors could vote for two candidates in the municipal elections. The percentages are determined in relation to the total number of votes.

All federal election information is taken from Elections Canada. Italicized expenditures refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available.