David MacDonald (Canadian politician)

David Samuel Horne MacDonald PC (born August 20, 1936) is a Canadian United Church of Canada minister, former politician, and author.

The Honourable David MacDonald PC
Secretary of State for Canada
In office June 4, 1979 – March 2, 1980
Prime Minister	Joe Clark
Preceded by	John Roberts
Succeeded by	Francis Fox
Minister of Communications
In office June 4, 1979 – March 2, 1980
Prime Minister	Joe Clark
Preceded by	Jeanne Sauvé
Succeeded by	Francis Fox
Minister responsible for the Status of Women
In office June 4, 1979 – March 2, 1980
Prime Minister	Joe Clark
Preceded by	Marc Lalonde
Succeeded by	Lloyd Axworthy
Member of Parliament for Rosedale
In office November 21, 1988 – October 25, 1993
Preceded by	David Crombie
Succeeded by	Bill Graham
Member of Parliament for Egmont (Prince; 1965–1968)
In office November 8, 1965 – February 18, 1980
Preceded by	John Watson MacNaught
Succeeded by	George Henderson
Personal details
Born	David Samuel Horne MacDonald (1936-08-20) August 20, 1936 (age 88) Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Political party	New Democratic (1996–present)
Other political affiliations	Progressive Conservative (until 1996)
Spouses	Sandrabelle Rogers ​ ​ (m. 1964⁠–⁠1997)​ Deborah Sinclair ​ (m. 2005)​
Domestic partner	Alexa McDonough (1997-2004)
Occupation	United Church minister, politician

Early life

Born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, David MacDonald was ordained in the United Church by the Maritime Conference on June 11, 1961, and was a minister at Alberton, Tignish, and Cascumpec, Prince Edward Island before going into federal politics.

Political career

He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) from the former Prince Edward Island riding of Prince in the 1965 election, and was re-elected in the realigned Egmont riding from 1968 until 1979.^[1]

After the Tory victory in the 1979 election, he was appointed Minister of Communications, Minister responsible for the Status of Women and Secretary of State for Canada in the short-lived Cabinet of Prime Minister Joe Clark.

MacDonald lost his seat to Liberal George Henderson in the 1980 election but returned to the House as MP in the Toronto riding of Rosedale in the 1988 election, replacing former Toronto Mayor and PC incumbent David Crombie.

However, he lost his seat again to a Liberal majority government in the 1993 election, this time to Bill Graham. Two other notable candidates ran against MacDonald in this election: future New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton, and magician Doug Henning for the Natural Law Party of Canada.

MacDonald also spent time in Africa between parliamentary duties.

MacDonald had a reputation as a Red Tory and subsequently switched his political allegiance to the social democratic New Democratic Party of Canada. He ran as the NDP candidate in his old riding (now called Toronto Centre-Rosedale) in the 1997 election, but was defeated again by Graham.

After politics

On November 25, 1998, The United Church of Canada appointed MacDonald a Special Advisor on residential schools, in light of major lawsuits against the UCC from former students.

Personal life

MacDonald was romantically involved with Alexa McDonough who at the time was leader of the federal NDP, prior to his 1997 candidacy.^[2] However, they split up prior to the 2004 federal election.^[3] MacDonald has since started another relationship and married.^[3]

Electoral record

Toronto Centre—Rosedale

1997 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bill Graham	22,945	49.19	-0.80
	New Democratic	David MacDonald	9,597	20.58	+9.80
	Progressive Conservative	Stephen Probyn	8,993	19.28	-1.96
	Reform	John Stewart	3,646	7.82	-4.65
	Green	Jim Harris	577	1.24	+0.30
	Canadian Action	Anthony Robert Pedrette	303	0.65
	Natural Law	Ron Parker	270	0.58	-1.01
	Marxist–Leninist	Steve Rutchinski	166	0.36	+0.25
	Independent	Ted W. Culp	145	0.31
Total valid votes			46,642	100.00

Rosedale

v t e 1993 Canadian federal election: Rosedale
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Bill Graham	27,707	49.98	–	$54,087
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	12,018	21.68		$60,961
	Reform	Daniel Jovkovic	7,048	12.71		$25,016
	New Democratic Party	Jack Layton	5,937	10.71		$44,872
	National	Martin Lanigan	1,091	1.97		$6,964
	Natural Law	Doug Henning	839	1.51		$37,086
	Green	Leslie Hunter	479	0.86		$380
	N/A (Christian Freedom)	Linda Dale Gibbons	214	0.39		$200
	Marxist-Leninist	Steve Rutchinski	61	0.11		$205
	Abolitionist	Y. Patrice d'Audibert-Garcien	43	0.08		$0
Total valid votes			55,437	100.00
Total rejected ballots			491
Turnout			55,928	61.71
Electors on the lists			90,630
Source: Thirty-fifth General Election, 1993: Official Voting Results, Published by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. Financial figures taken from official contributions and expenses provided by Elections Canada.

1988 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	22,704	41.36	-11.44
	Liberal	Bill Graham	22,624	41.21	+15.08
	New Democratic	Doug Wilson	8,266	15.06	-2.77
	Libertarian	Chris Blatchly	411	0.75	+0.09
	Green	Frank de Jong	397	0.72	-1.15
	Rhinoceros	Liane McLarty	265	0.48
	Independent	Mike Constable	102	0.19
	Independent	Harry Margel	91	0.17
	Commonwealth of Canada	Paul Therrien	33	0.06	-0.27
Total valid votes			54,893	100.00

Egmont

1980 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Henderson	8,639	52.37	+12.93
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	7,033	42.63	-13.44
	New Democratic	Vincent Gallant	824	5.00	+0.51
Total valid votes			16,496	100.00

1979 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	8,861	56.07	+3.82
	Liberal	Bill Reese	6,233	39.44	-4.81
	New Democratic	Vincent Gallant	710	4.49	+0.98
Total valid votes			15,804	100.00

1974 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	7,583	52.25	-3.53
	Liberal	Bill Reese	6,422	44.25	+3.97
	New Democratic	Cletus Shea	509	3.51	-0.04
Total valid votes			14,514	100.00

1972 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	7,868	55.78	+2.26
	Liberal	George W. Olscamp	5,681	40.28	-4.02
	New Democratic	Carroll L. Kadey	501	3.55	+1.37
	Social Credit	Hugh G. Ryan	55	0.39
Total valid votes			14,105	100.00

1968 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	7,182	53.52
	Liberal	J. Melville Campbell	5,945	44.30
	New Democratic	Harvey Dawson	292	2.18
Total valid votes			13,419	100.00

Prince

1965 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Progressive Conservative	David MacDonald	9,082
	Liberal	John Watson MacNaught	8,312
	New Democratic	Harvey Dawson	384

Archives

There is a David S.H. MacDonald fonds at Library and Archives Canada.^[4]