Elmer Sopha
| Elmer Sopha | |
|---|---|
| MPP for Sudbury | |
|
In office 1959–1971 |
|
| Preceded by | Gerry Monaghan |
| Succeeded by | Bud Germa |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 18, 1924 Cobalt, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | January 4, 1982 (aged 57) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Residence | Sudbury, Ontario |
| Occupation | lawyer |
Elmer Walter Sopha, QC (April 18, 1924 – January 4, 1982) was a Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Sudbury in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1959 to 1971. He was a member of the Ontario Liberal Party.
Sopha was born in Cobalt, Ontario. He served with the Royal Canadian Navy and attended the University of Toronto, receiving a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1953. Sopha was called to the bar two years later, and was named a Queen's Counsel in 1965.
He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1959 provincial election, defeating his Progressive Conservative opponent by 3,143 votes. He was re-elected with a reduced majority in the 1963 election, and defeated Progressive Conservative Jim Gordon by only 540 votes in 1967.
Sopha was considered one of the great orators in Ontario politics of his era, and was nicknamed "The Northern Gadfly" by the southern Ontario media. He was one of just two MPPs in the province, alongside caucus colleague Leo Troy, who voted against the adoption of the current Flag of Ontario—the Sudbury area has a large Franco-Ontarian population, who largely considered the flag a symbol of British imperialism, and Sopha argued in the legislature that the flag was not an appropriate symbol of Ontario's cultural diversity.
...
Wikipedia