Tony Peter Clement (né Panayi; born January 27, 1961) is a Canadian politician who served as a member of the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. He was the member of Parliament (MP) for Parry Sound-Muskoka and a federal cabinet minister in the Conservative Party under prime minister Stephen Harper. Before entering federal politics, Clement served as an Ontario member of Provincial Parliament for Brampton South then Brampton West—Mississauga and a cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, including as Minister of Health and Long-Term Care under premiers Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.
He was a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada after its formation from the merger of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties in 2003, but lost to Stephen Harper. Clement won the seat of Parry Sound-Muskoka in the 2006 federal election, defeating incumbent Liberal cabinet minister Andy Mitchell. The Conservatives formed government in that election and Clement was appointed Minister of Health and Minister for FedNor. He later served as Minister of Industry and President of the Treasury Board. He was re-elected in the 2015 election despite the Conservative defeat, and announced his second bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party on July 12, 2016, but withdrew that October.
From his initial election as MP in 2006, Clement sat as a Conservative member until he resigned at the request of Conservative leader Andrew Scheer on November 7, 2018, due to a sexting scandal.
Early life and career
Clement was born Tony Peter Panayi in Manchester, England, the son of Carol Ann (née Drapkin) and Peter Panayi. His father was a Greek Cypriot and his mother was Jewish (part of her family had immigrated from Aleppo, Syria). He emigrated to Canada in childhood with his parents when he was four years old. His parents divorced and his mother married Ontario politician John Clement, with Tony adopting his stepfather's surname soon after.
As a student at the University of Toronto, Clement was elected twice, both as an undergraduate and as a law student, to the university's Governing Council. He was also president of the campus Progressive Conservatives. He first attracted the attention of the media in 1986, when he created a new society to invite the South African ambassador to Canada, Glenn Babb, to speak after the International Law Society had withdrawn its invitation, deeming it too controversial because of the issue of apartheid. Clement argued in favour of inviting Babb on the grounds of free speech. An attempt by four law professors for a court injunction barring "any representative of the Republic of South Africa to expound, explain or otherwise to solicit public support for his Government's policy of apartheid" was rejected by the court. He completed degrees in political science in 1983 and law in 1986, and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1988.
He unsuccessfully ran for Metro Toronto Council in 1994, losing to future mayor David Miller in the ward of Parkdale-High Park.
Clement is married to Lynne Golding, a partner and Chair of the Health Law Practice at the international law firm, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin.
Provincial politics Clement became president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC) in 1990 and was a close ally of then-party leader Mike Harris; he served as Harris's assistant principal secretary from 1992 to 1995 and played a leading role in drafting policy directives for the Common Sense Revolution. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the provincial election of 1995, defeating incumbent Liberal Bob Callahan by over 6,000 votes in the riding of Brampton South. He served as a Parliamentary Assistant for two years, initially to the Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation, then to the Deputy Premier; he was then elevated to the cabinet as Minister of Transportation on October 10, 1997. He also represented the Progressive Conservative government on a variety of televised discussion panels, gaining the reputation of a rising star in the party.
Clement was returned in the provincial election of 1999 in the new riding of Brampton West—Mississauga, defeating Liberal candidate Vic Dhillon by over 8,000 votes. He was reassigned as Minister of the Environment on June 17, 1999, and served in this capacity until May 3, 2000. In this role, he implemented the program known as Ontario's Drive Clean, which mandated periodic emissions tests on vehicles in Southern Ontario.
He was appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing on October 25, 1999, and held this position until February 8, 2001, when he was named Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. He initiated primary care reform, oversaw the implementation of Telehealth Ontario (a toll-free health information line staffed by registered nurses) and expanded Ontario's hospitals system. Clement also entered into a public-private partnership for a hospital redevelopment in Brampton.
Following Harris's resignation, Clement ran in the 2002 Ontario PC leadership election, finishing third on the first ballot behind Ernie Eves and Jim Flaherty. Clement then placed his support in the second ballot behind Eves, who emerged victorious, and stayed on as health minister in the Eves ministry. He was especially prominent when Toronto suffered an outbreak of SARS in 2003, travelling to Geneva in a successful bid to urge the World Health Organization to lift a travel ban to Canada's largest city.
The Eves government was defeated in the 2003 provincial election, and Clement was unseated by Vic Dhillon by about 2,500 votes in a rematch of 1999. Clement afterwards worked as a counsel for Bennett Jones LLP; he was also a small business owner and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
Federal politics Clement first became prominent in federal politics in 2000, sitting on the steering committee for the United Alternative. This initiative was meant to provide a framework for the Reform Party and Progressive Conservative Party to unite under a single banner. It did not accomplish this end, but nonetheless led to the formation of the Canadian Alliance from the Reform Party later that year; Clement served as the Alliance's founding president.
Following his defeat in the 2003 provincial election, Clement declared himself a candidate for the leadership of the new Conservative Party of Canada. He placed third in the party's leadership vote, behind Belinda Stronach and winner Stephen Harper. He then ran as the Conservative Party candidate in Brampton West in the 2004 federal election, but lost to Liberal incumbent Colleen Beaumier by about 3,500 votes.
For his second attempt to win a seat in the House of Commons of Canada, he switched to the Parry Sound-Muskoka riding in the 2006 election. On election night, he was declared the winner by 21 votes. Upon conclusion of the judicial recount, Clement was found to have defeated the incumbent Andy Mitchell by 28 votes: 18,513-18,485. He was re-elected in Parry Sound—Muskoka in the 2008, 2011 and 2015 elections.
Clement pledged to extend an existing measure to require disclosure of meetings by only registered lobbyists with lower-level government officials who have decision-making power.
Minister of Health On February 6, 2006, Clement was appointed as Minister of Health by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Some of Clement's initiatives included announcing a national strategy on autism, working towards establishing Canada's first Patient Wait Times Guarantees, and investing in faster, more effective and safer health information systems across Canada for Canadians.
One of Clement's first initiatives as Minister of Health was establishing the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, an independent not-for-profit organization committed to combating this disease and improving patients' quality of life.
In 2006, Clement launched the Public Health Scholarship and Capacity Building Initiative — ongoing scholarships supporting public health training and positions across Canada. Furthermore, in 2006, he announced the $1-billion compensation package for pre-1986/post-1990 forgotten victims of the tainted blood scandal, who were neglected in the 1998 settlement agreement.
Clement also played a key role in launching the Chemical Management Plan, which the Conservative government claimed "made Canada a world leader in chemical management". "We have established clear priorities and now we are taking action to protect the health of Canadians," said Clement. Further, the government claimed "Canada was the first nation in the world to take action to prohibit the importation, sale and advertising of baby bottles that contain BPA".
On September 29, 2007, the CBC reported Clement's new strategy to combat the growing drug abuse problem in Canada. "The party is over" for illicit drug users, he announced, with the new policy aiming towards widespread arrest of drug users, in contrast to the old strategy of targeting dealers. Over 130 physicians and scientists signed a petition condemning the Conservative government's "potentially deadly" misrepresentation of the positive evidence for harm reduction programs. Clement stated that governments in Canada have been sending the wrong message about drug use, and he wanted to clear up the mixed messages going out on illicit drugs.
Also in 2007, Clement launched the new Canada's Food Guide, the first update in 15 years incorporating the most up-to-date information based on current nutritional science and a new interactive web section.
Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario On February 6, 2006, in addition to being appointed Minister of Health, Clement was also appointed Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for Northern Ontario (FedNor). He held the position until November 2015.
Minister of Industry
On October 30, 2008, Clement was sworn into the office of Industry Minister. This included the appointment to the Office of the Registrar General of Canada.
Shortly after becoming Industry Minister, Clement launched the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, a two-year $2-billion measure that supported infrastructure enhancement at post-secondary institutions across Canada.
In conjunction with the US and Ontario governments, Clement worked closely on the restructuring of GM and Chrysler. Following the restructuring, he stated that the companies would "now be in a position to operate a sustainable and viable business that will keep production, innovation and jobs in Canada. This is good news for Canadian auto workers, the Canadian auto parts supply chain and for Canadian consumers. Moving forward, the Government of Canada will continue to work toward removing our country's auto industry, while exercising rigorous oversight of taxpayer money."
In the summer of 2010, Clement introduced changes to the 2011 Census. On this issue, he said, "The government will retain the mandatory short form that will collect basic demographic information. To meet the need for additional information, and to respect the privacy wishes of Canadians, the government has introduced the voluntary National Household Survey (NHS)." The change sparked significant criticism, including the resignation of Statistics Canada's Chief Statistician (see Voluntary long-form survey controversy). Other changes included the addition of questions about the languages spoken by Canadians.