Paul Ferreira

Paul Ferreira (born in 1973) is a Canadian politician and one of the first openly gay politicians elected to provincial office in Canada. He also has the distinction of being the very first Azorean-Canadian MPP. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) in the February 8, 2007 York South–Weston by-election, but was narrowly defeated in the 2007 general election. He subsequently served as chief of staff to party leader Howard Hampton until Hampton's retirement from that position in 2009. He later worked as a special assistant to leader Andrea Horwath. On Feb. 8, 2011, Ferreira was acclaimed as the Ontario NDP's candidate in York South-Weston in the 2011 provincial election. Paul Ferreira was born in the Azores. Along with his family, he immigrated to Canada in 1979. They settled in Brampton, Ontario. He attended primary and secondary schools in the Brampton area and went on to study and graduate from Ottawa's Carleton University. Ferreira is an honours graduate of Carleton University's School of Journalism, where he received awards for academic excellence and community involvement. He speaks English, French and Portuguese. Ferreira's parents—Gilberto and Filomena—were active trade unionists, and he followed their example by becoming a United Food and Commercial Workers union steward at a local drugstore while still in high school. His union experience attracted him to the NDP. Since 1990, Ferreira has held numerous positions in the NDP. He was Vice President of Outreach for the New Democratic Youth of Canada from 1997 to 1999, he served on the Ontario NDP's executive from 2002 to 2004 and he was co-chair of the party's LGBT Committee for a number of years. He has also been active with numerous community groups. Ferreira left the NDP in 2016 stating that the party had become "fundamentally dishonest" and that "the party has "lost its way" by erecting "reactionary" roadblocks against highway tolls.