Stan Tymiński

Stanisław "Stan" Tymiński (Polish pronunciation: [staˈɲiswaf tɨˈmʲiɲskʲi]; born January 27, 1948) is a Canadian businessman of Polish origin, dealing in electronics and computers, and a sometime-politician in both Poland and Canada. Although Tymiński was born in Pruszków, he was completely unknown in his native Poland until shortly before the 1990 presidential election, he emerged from the first ballot as the second strongest candidate, defeating liberal prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and forcing Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa to stand a second ballot. After Wałęsa defeated him by a wide margin, Tymiński was a leader of Party X in Poland (1990–1995) and then returned to Canada to resume his business activities. Tymiński also ran in the 2005 Polish presidential election.

In 1990/1991, Tymiński led the Libertarian Party of Canada, a minor party which never received more than 0.25% of the vote. At the same time, he started a political career in his native Poland, where democracy had just been reestablished.

In the first free presidential elections on November 25, 1990, the two most promising candidates were Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa and prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Wałęsa, the electrician, union leader and people's tribune, had the image of an emotional, shirtsleeves populist, while lawyer and former Solidarity legal advisor Mazowiecki appeared as a more respectable and intellectual, but also more formal compromiser.

Tymiński ran as a maverick candidate. He overtook Mazowiecki (18.1%) with 23.1% of the vote and placed second behind Wałęsa with 39.96%. As no candidate had achieved the absolute majority, a second ballot was required and held on December 9, 1990. In the second round, Tymiński lost to Wałęsa with just 25.75% of the total vote. The turnout in the ballots was 60.6% and 53.4%, respectively.

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