Patrick Johnston (Canadian politician), Date of Birth
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Canadian politician
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About Patrick Johnston (Canadian politician)
- Patrick Johnston is a Canadian administrator, policy analyst and former politician.
- He was recruited by Liberal Party leader John Turner to contest the 1988 election for the party, but unexpectedly lost his nomination to a rival candidate supported by pro-life activists.A teacher and social worker from Toronto, Johnston served for six years as leader of the National Anti-Poverty Organization.
- Originally a member of the New Democratic Party, he joined the Liberals in 1984 after charging the NDP with lacking a coherent economic policy.
- He served as senior advisor to Ontario Premier David Peterson's Social Assistance Review Committee, and was co-chair of the federal Liberal Party's election committee in 1988. Despite strong support from the party establishment, he lost the Liberal nomination in Scarborough West to a little-known Toronto lawyer named Tom Wappel, 523 votes to 372.
- Wappel, a staunch social conservative, was supported by members of the pro-life group Campaign Life.
- Johnston, who was thirty-nine years old in 1988, remained a senior policy advisor to John Turner after this defeat.Johnston was hired as a senior policy advisor to Ontario Premier David Peterson in 1989, and held this position until Peterson's defeat in 1990.
- He later served as executive director of the Canadian Council on Social Development.
- In the latter capacity, he promoted economic intervention to address poverty issues and spoke out against workfare programs.In 1994, Johnston chaired a task-force convened by cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy on reforms to Canada's welfare state.
- He later served as president and CEO of the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy, an umbrella group covering a variety of charitable groups.
- During this period, he served as co-chair of the Joint Coordinating Committee of the Voluntary Sector Initiative, an attempt to strengthen the relationship between the federal government and Canada's voluntary, non-profit sector.
- He was also elected to Chair the Board of Directors of the Johannesburg-based NGO, Civicus: World Alliance for Citizen Participation. In October, 2002 he was appointed president and CEO of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation a private charitable foundation established by former federal Liberal finance Minister, Walter Gordon.
- During this period, Johnston served on the Board of Directors of Philanthropic Foundations Canada and the Council on Foundations based in Washington.
- In 2010, he oversaw a foundation-led project to reimagine Canadian foreign aid that resulted in the publication of four papers.
- He was also a visiting Fellow at Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation at the University of Toronto's School of Public Policy and Governance. In 2011, Johnston launched Borealis Advisors, a consultancy supporting leaders of charitable and philanthropic organizations.
- He serves as volunteer on a number of non-profit boards and advisory committees, including Canada Helps, the Ontario Nonprofit Network and the Canadian Centre for International Justice.
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