John Rafferty (Canadian politician)

John Rafferty MP
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Thunder Bay—Rainy River
In office October 14, 2008 – August 4, 2015
Preceded by	Ken Boshcoff
Succeeded by	Don Rusnak
Personal details
Born	(1953-07-03) July 3, 1953 Wingham, Ontario
Political party	New Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Pamela Cain
Profession	instructor, teacher, small business owner

John Rafferty (born July 3, 1953 in Wingham, Ontario) is a Canadian politician, who was first elected to represent the electoral district of Thunder Bay—Rainy River in the 2008 Canadian federal election. He is a member of the New Democratic Party.

Rafferty was previously the party's candidate in Thunder Bay—Superior North for the 2000 federal election, in Thunder Bay—Rainy River for the 2004 and 2006 federal elections, and in Thunder Bay—Atikokan in the 2003 and 2007 provincial elections. Provincially, he lost to incumbent MPP Bill Mauro by a margin of just 50 votes in 2007.

Rafferty worked as a radio broadcaster for CKPR in Thunder Bay before leaving to pursue his first election campaign. He subsequently launched his own business producing voiceovers for educational and training videos.

Rafferty has introduced one piece of legislation: the National Strategy for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Act. He first introduced it on September 30, 2010, in the third session of the 40th Parliament as a private member's bill. He re-introduced it in June 2011, during the first session of the 41st Parliament.

Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	18,039	48.1	+7.8
	Conservative	Moe Comuzzi-Stehmann	10,096	27.2	+3.6
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	8,066	21.7	-10.6
	Green	Ed Shields	909	2.4	-1.4
Total valid votes			37,110

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	14,473	40.3	+6.9
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	11,589	32.3	-2.8
	Conservative	Richard Neumann	8,466	23.6	-3.6
	Green	Russ Aegard	1,377	3.8	+0.7
Total valid votes			35,905

Ontario general election, 2007
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bill Mauro	10,913	37.7	-20.55
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	10,877	37.5	+15.88
	Progressive Conservative	Rebecca Johnson	5,914	20.4	+2.78
	Green	Russ Aegard	1,271	4.4	+1.89

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	13,525	35.1%
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	12,862	33.4%
	Conservative	David Leskowski	10,485	27.2%
	Green	Russ Aegard	1,189	3.1%
	Marijuana	Doug MacKay	424	1.1%
Total valid votes			38,485

Canadian federal election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Ken Boshcoff	14,290
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	10,781
	Conservative	David Leskowski	9,559
	Green	Russ Aegard	856
	Marijuana	Doug Thompson	547
	Christian Heritage	Johannes Scheibler	267

Ontario general election, 2003
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Bill Mauro	17735	58.25	-5.78
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	6582	21.62	4.86
	Progressive Conservative	Brian McKinnon	5365	17.62	-1.59
	Green	Kristin Boyer	762	2.5

Canadian federal election, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	Joe Comuzzi	15,241
	Alliance	Doug Pantry	6,278
	New Democratic	John Rafferty	6,169
	Progressive Conservative	Richard Neumann	2,753
	Green	Carl Rose	648
	Marijuana	Denis A. Carrière	581

External links

• John Rafferty
• John Rafferty – Parliament of Canada biography