Raymond Cho (politician)

Raymond Sung Joon Cho (Korean: 조성준) (born November 18, 1936) is a politician from Ontario who is currently serving as Minister of Seniors and Accessibility of Ontario since June 29, 2018. In 2016, he won a by-election to become the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPP for Scarborough—Rouge River in the Ontario legislature. Previously, he had been a municipal politician since 1991, most recently as a City Councillor representing Ward 42 Scarborough—Rouge River. Before being elected, he worked as a social worker for the Catholic Children's Aid Society, the Toronto Board of Education, and the Scarborough Board of Education.[2]

The Honourable Raymond Cho MPP
조성준
Ontario Minister of Seniors and Accessibility
Incumbent
Assumed office June 29, 2018
Premier	Doug Ford
Preceded by	Dipika Damerla
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Scarborough North Scarborough—Rouge River (2016-2018)
Incumbent
Assumed office September 1, 2016
Preceded by	Bas Balkissoon
Toronto City Councillor for (Ward 42) Scarborough—Rouge River
In office December 1, 2000 – September 10, 2016
Preceded by	New ward
Succeeded by	Neethan Shan
Chair of the Scarborough Community Council
In office December 1, 2003 – June 27, 2005
Preceded by	Ron Moeser
Succeeded by	Michael Thompson
Toronto City Councillor for Scarborough Malvern (Ward 18)
In office January 1, 1998 – December 1, 2000
Preceded by	New ward
Succeeded by	Ward abolished
Metro Toronto City Councillor for Scarborough Malvern (Ward 18)
In office December 1, 1991 – January 1, 1998
Preceded by	Bob Sanders
Succeeded by	City Amalgamated
Personal details
Born	November 18, 1936 Seoul, Japanese-Occupied Korea[1]
Political party	Progressive Conservative (Provincial) Independent (Municipal)
Other political affiliations	New Democratic Party (until ca. 1991) Liberal (mid-1990s-2004)
Spouse(s)	Soon Ok[2]
Children	3
Alma mater	University of Toronto
Occupation	Social Worker

Cho holds a master's degree in Social Work and Doctorate in Education from the University of Toronto. He is married to Soon Ok, and has three adult sons: Raymond Jr., Ronald, and William.[2]

Municipal politics

He was first elected to Metropolitan Toronto Council for Scarborough-Malvern in 1991, and was re-elected in 1994. After the Scarborough and the other suburbs were amalgamated into the new City of Toronto, Cho was elected to the new council representing Scarborough-Malvern in 1997 along with Bas Balkissoon. In 2000, he was again re-elected, representing the new ward of Scarborough Rouge-River. He won re-election in 2003, 2006 and 2010.

On August 13, 2004, the Toronto Star reported that Cho spent nearly all of his allotted councillor expense fund, one of the highest on city council. While there was some speculation that some of this money was diverted to Cho's failed bid to run in the federal election campaign, his executive assistant said the money was needed for newsletters mailed out to constituents to provide information on a rash of fatal shootings in the Malvern neighbourhood earlier in the year.[3]

Cho was Chairman of the Toronto Zoo for two successive terms.

Federal politics

Cho was a New Democratic Party candidate for election to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1988 federal election and was initially identified as a New Democrat when he joined Metro Council, however, he soon became an ally and supporter of then Metropolitan Toronto Chairman Alan Tonks and dropped his NDP affiliation. He subsequently took out membership in the Liberal Party though, like most non-NDP municipal politicians in Ontario he did not run on a party label in municipal elections.

He ran in the 2004 federal election as an independent candidate in Scarborough—Rouge River. Cho called himself an "independent Liberal", and used the Liberal Party of Canada's red-and-white colours for his campaign materials. He was accused of trying to mislead voters by the official Liberal candidate, Derek Lee. Lee, who has been the MP since 1988 said that Cho caused some controversy by claiming to have been shut out of the candidate nomination process.[4] Lee won the election, Cho placed a distant second with 6,692 votes (17.8% of the total).

Provincial politics

In 2005, Cho expressed interest in being the Ontario Liberal Party's candidate in the Scarborough—Rouge River provincial by-election which was made necessary by the appointment of incumbent Liberal MPP Alvin Curling to a diplomatic position. However, the Liberal riding association used a clause of its constitution to declare another city councillor, Bas Balkissoon, as its candidate without a contested nomination process. Media reports suggested that this was done to exclude Cho as the provincial riding association was displeased with Cho's "independent Liberal" candidacy in the 2004 federal election.[5] Cho was also mentioned as a potential candidate for the Progressive Conservatives since he helped former leader John Tory during the March 2005 by-election in Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey.[6] In the end, Cho chose not to run in the by-election which was won handily by Balkissoon.

In 2012, Cho was named as the Progressive Conservative candidate for the provincial riding of Scarborough—Rouge River.[7] In the 2014 provincial election, Cho placed third with 27.68% of the vote.

In 2016, Cho was nominated as the Progressive Conservative Party candidate for the September 1 by-election in Scarborough—Rouge River, after incumbent Liberal MPP Bas Balkissoon resigned to spend more time with family. Cho won the by-election in an upset victory,[8] becoming the first Korean-Canadian elected to the Ontario Legislature. Cho was handily reelected in 2018 in the new riding of Scarborough North, winning over half of the popular vote.

Election results

Scarborough—Rouge River

2004 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Derek Lee	22,564	57.9	−21.2
	Independent	Raymond Cho	6,962	17.9
	Conservative	Tony Backhurst	5,184	13.3	−2.7
	New Democratic	Fauzia Khan	3,635	9.3	+4.4
	Green	Kathryn Holloway	610	1.5
Total valid votes			38,955	100.0

Note: Conservative vote is compared to the total of the Canadian Alliance vote and Progressive Conservative vote in 2000 election.

1988 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Derek Lee	22,767	47.1
	Progressive Conservative	Doug Boswell	18,171	37.6
	New Democratic	Raymond Cho	6,589	13.6
	Libertarian	Simon Harvey	513	1.1
	Green	Lois James	286	0.6
Total valid votes			48,326	100.0

Scarborough North

2018 Ontario general election: Scarborough North
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Raymond Cho	17,413	51.05
	New Democratic	Dwayne Morgan	8,320	24.39
	Liberal	Chin Lee	7,519	22.04
	Green	Nicole Peltier	543	1.59
	Libertarian	Sean Morgan	318	0.93
Total valid votes			34,113	100.0
	Progressive Conservative pickup new district.
Source: Elections Ontario[9]

Scarborough—Rouge River

Ontario provincial by-election, September 1, 2016 Resignation of Bas Balkissoon
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Raymond Cho	9,644	38.58	+10.92
	Liberal	Piragal Thiru	7,257	28.91	−9.79
	New Democratic	Neethan Shan	6,905	27.40	−3.91
	Independent	Queenie Yu	575	2.32
	Green	Priyan De Silva	216	0.86	−0.51
	Libertarian	Allen Small	146	0.58
	None of the Above	Above Znoneofthe	133	0.54	−0.42
	Freedom	Wayne Simmons	59	0.30
	People's Political Party	Dwight McLean	45	0.22
	Pauper	John Turmel	37	0.15
	Trillium	Ania Krosinska	36	0.14
Total valid votes			25,182	100.00
	Progressive Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing		+10.36

2014 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bas Balkissoon	16,095	38.71	−3.17
	New Democratic	Neethan Shan	13,019	31.31	−4.66
	Progressive Conservative	Raymond Cho	11,500	27.66	+8.87
	Green	George B. Singh	571	1.37	+0.12
	None of the Above	Amir Khan	398	0.96
Total valid votes			41,583	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			479	1.14
Turnout			42,062	47.48
Eligible voters			88,592
	Liberal hold		Swing		+0.75
Source: Elections Ontario[10]

Ward 42 (Scarborough—Rouge River)

2010 Toronto election, Ward 42
Candidate	Votes[11]	%
(x) Raymond Cho	10,811	52.93%
Neethan Shan	6,873	33.65%
Shamoon Poonawala	586	2.869%
Mohammed Ather	474	2.321%
Namu Ponnambalam	443	2.169%
Ruth Tecle	437	2.14%
George Singh	353	1.728%
Leon Saul	323	1.581%
Venthan Ramanathavavuniyan	125	0.612%
Total	20,425	100%

2006 Toronto election, Ward 42
Candidate	Votes	%
(x) Raymond Cho	7480	52.2
Kumar Nadarajah	3683	25.7
Mohammed Ather	1639	11.4
Bonnie Irwin	1532	10.7

2003 Toronto election, Ward 42
Candidate	Votes	%
(x) Raymond Cho	8,302	70.0
Paulette Senior	3,314	27.9
Akeem Fasasi	245	2.1

2000 Toronto election, Ward 42
Candidate	Votes	%
(x) Raymond Cho	7,428
Eden Gajraj	2,101
Horace Dockery	1,890
Pat Johnson	562

1997 Toronto election, Ward 18 - Scarborough Malvern (2 elected)
Candidate	Votes	%
(x) Raymond Cho	11,190
Bas Balkissoon	10,745
Edith Montgomery	10,659
Jim Mackey	2,621
Terry Singh	1,812
Sinna Chelliah	1,165
Jasmine Singh	871
Arlanna Lewis	666
George B. Singh	339

1994 Toronto election, Scarborough Malvern
Candidate	Votes	%
(x) Raymond Cho	10,272
Diamond Tobin-West	3,382
Yaqoob Khan	1,807

1991 Toronto election, Scarborough Malvern
Candidate	Votes	%
Raymond Cho	5,283
(x) Bob Sanders	3,977
Shan Rana	1,321

(x) - incumbent

Cabinet positions

References

1. "About Raymond – Raymond Cho".
2. "Raymond Cho - MPP, Scarborough-Rouge River". Ontario PC. Archived from the original on June 3, 2017.
3. Catherine Porter. Cho biggest spender at city hall; $53,100 limit nearly spent Councillor ran in federal election. Toronto Star. August 13, 2004. Pg. F02.
4. Ho Anderson. Rookies challenge Liberal MP. Toronto Star. June 19, 2004. Pg. H03.
5. Urquhart, Ian (October 5, 2005). "Liberals play rough on by-election. Toronto Star". pressreader.com. Toronto Star.
6. Robert Benzie. Twice bitten, McGuinty shy of vote; Curling's Scarborough riding considered a safe Liberal seat. Toronto Star. August 27, 2005. Pg F02.
7. Alcoba, Natalie (18 December 2012). "Rob Ford critic Raymond Cho named as Ontario PC candidate for Scarborough-Rouge River". National Post.
8. Benzie, Robert (September 1, 2016). "Tory Raymond Cho wins Scarborough-Rouge River byelection". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on June 3, 2017.
9. "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 8. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
10. "Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. April 1, 2015. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 6, 2015.
11. Ulli S. Watkiss (October 28, 2010). "2010 Clerk's Official Declaration of Election Results" (PDF). City of Toronto. p. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 29, 2014.

External links

• Raymond Sung Joon Cho – Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history