{{Short description|Canadian politician}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honourable | name = Floyd Laughren | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|ECO|size=100%}} | image = | caption = | order1 = 4th | office1 = Deputy Premier of Ontario | term_start1 = October 1, 1990 | term_end1 = June 26, 1995 | premier1 = Bob Rae | predecessor1 = Robert Nixon | successor1 = Ernie Eves | office2 = Ontario MPP | term_start2 = 1971 | term_end2 = 1998 | predecessor2 = Gaston Demers | successor2 = Blain Morin | constituency2 = Nickel Belt | party = Ontario New Democrat | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1935|10|03}} | birth_place = Shawville, Quebec, Canada | occupation = Economist, college professor | spouse = Jeanette Gossen (d. 2007) | children = 3 }}
'''Floyd Laughren''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|ECO}} (born October 3, 1935) is a former Canadian politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1998 who represented the northern Ontario riding of Nickel Belt. He served in cabinet as Finance Minister and Deputy Premier in the government of Bob Rae.
==Background== Laughren was born in Shawville, Quebec to parents Irvin and Erma Laughren. He is one of eight children. The family moved to a farm near Caledonia, Ontario where he grew up. He studied business at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and York University. After graduation, he worked as a manager at a Zellers store. In 1969 he was hired to teach economics at Cambrian College in Sudbury.<ref name="community">{{cite web |title=Hall of Fame: Floyd Laughren |publisher=Community Builders Awards of Excellence |url=http://www.cbawards.ca/Winners/2007/hallOfFame.asp |year=2007 |access-date=January 10, 2014 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref><ref name="who">{{cite book |title=1995: Who's Who in Canada |edition=86 |publisher=Global Press |location=Toronto |year=1995 |pages=425–6}}</ref>
Laughren's wife Jeanette (née Gossen), whom he married in 1962, died on August 26, 2007. They had three children.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.northernlife.ca/News/LocalNews/2007/08-28-07-laughren.asp?NLStory=08-28-07-laughren |title=Wife of politician supported causes with steely determination |newspaper=Northern Life |date=August 28, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070905122515/http://www.northernlife.ca/News/LocalNews/2007/08-28-07-laughren.asp?NLStory=08-28-07-laughren |archive-date=September 5, 2007 }}</ref>
==Politics== In the 1971 provincial election Laughren ran as the New Democratic Party candidate in the Sudbury-area riding of Nickel Belt. He defeated Progressive Conservative incumbent Gaston Demers by just under 2,000 votes.<ref name="1971 Election Results">{{cite news |title=Riding-by-riding returns in provincial election |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=October 23, 1971 |page=10}}</ref> He was re-elected without difficulty in the elections of 1975, 1977, 1981, 1985, 1987 and 1990.<ref name="1990 Election Results">{{cite news |title=Ontario election: Riding-by-riding voting results |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=September 7, 1990 |page=A12}}</ref>
Laughren was from the left wing of the party, and supported Richard Johnston for the party's leadership in 1982.<ref>{{cite news |title=Johnston enters NDP contest |last=Speirs |first=Rosemary |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=September 25, 1981 |page=5}}</ref> He was not initially an ally of Bob Rae, and was also a frequent rival of fellow Northern Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Bud Wildman for key shadow cabinet postings. Some of the official critic postings that he held included Colleges and Universities, Treasurer, and Natural Resources.<ref name="who"/>
According to journalist Thomas Walkom, Laughren was planning to retire from politics before the 1990 campaign, and only ran again because the election was called before he could coordinate his departure. The NDP won a majority government and Laughren was sworn in as Finance Minister and Deputy Premier on October 1, 1990.<ref name="who"/>
As Finance Minister, Laughren was frequently criticized for presiding over a series of budget deficits (his 1991 budget proclaimed a deficit of almost ten billion dollars) without significant job creation. Laughren's defenders have noted that much of North America was mired in a significant recession during this period, and that the outgoing Liberal government of David Peterson significantly underestimated expenditure costs in 1990. It has also been noted that Laughren's budgets after 1991 were generally focused on deficit-cutting measures.
Despite his previous reputation for being on the left wing of the party, Laughren emerged as a proponent of austerity measures and generally centrist policies during his time in government. He also became known as Bob Rae's closest ally in cabinet, notwithstanding their previous differences. Along with Rae, he supported the party's withdrawal from an earlier pledge to introduce public automobile insurance in the province in 1991. He also approved the introduction of casinos to the province, and was a leading proponent of the Social Contract in 1993.
As the province's first socialist Finance Minister, Laughren was nicknamed "Pink Slip Floyd" by the right-wing Sun Media tabloid newspapers and public sector unions OPSEU and CUPE alike.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://greatersudbury.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/p22003coll2/id/37294/download|title= Be swayed by performance, not catchy slogans|last=Dowd|first=Eric|publisher=Northern Life newspaper|date=January 12, 2005|accessdate=April 29, 2024}}</ref> When Liberal Robert Nixon retired from the legislature in 1992, Laughren became its longest-serving member.
The NDP government was defeated in the 1995 provincial election, although Laughren was able to retain Nickel Belt with a somewhat reduced majority. In 1996, he was the only New Democratic MPP from northern Ontario to support Frances Lankin's unsuccessful bid to replace Rae as party leader.
===Cabinet positions=== {{s-start}} {{Canadian cabinet member navigational box header |ministry=Bob_Rae}} {{ministry box cabinet posts | post3preceded = Ministry Created | post3 = Minister of Finance | post3years = 1993–1995 | post3note = | post3followed = Ernie Eves | post2preceded = Robert Nixon | post2 = Minister of Economics and Treasurer | post2years = 1990–1993 | post2note = | post2followed = Ministry Abolished | post1preceded = Robert Nixon | post1 = Deputy Premier of Ontario | post1years = 1990–1995 | post1note = | post1followed = Ernie Eves }} {{s-end}}
==Later life== He retired in 1998 and was appointed as chair the Ontario Energy Board. He served a three-year term.<ref name="community"/> In 2001, Laughren was appointed to the Board of Governors for Laurentian University. In 2010, he was made Chair of the Board. In 2000, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from that institution.<ref name="LUchair">{{cite news |title=Floyd Laughren appointed as chair of LU board of governors |newspaper=Northern Life |location=Sudbury, Ontario |date=May 5, 2010 |url=http://www.northernlife.ca/news/localNews/2010/05/laughren-050510.aspx |access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>
In 2006, he was appointed by Greater Sudbury mayor David Courtemanche to chair an advisory committee to review and recommend improvements to city services in the five-year-old amalgamated city.<ref name="community"/> Laughren offered 34 recommendations for service improvements when he presented his final report on January 10, 2007.
In 2012, Laughren was appointed to a three-member panel along with Murray Elston and David McFadden to study Ontario's electricity distribution system. They released a report that recommended the 73 power distribution utilities be reduced to between 8 and 12 with at least 400,000 customers in each of the new utilities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/en/ldc-panel/#j |title=Renewing Ontario's Electricity Distribution Sector: Putting the Consumer First |publisher=Ministry of Energy |date=December 2012 |access-date=2014-01-11 |archive-date=2014-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111162102/http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/en/ldc-panel/#j |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2017, he was made a member of the Order of Ontario.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.ontario.ca/mci/en/2018/01/the-2017-appointees-to-the-order-of-ontario.html|title=The 2017 Appointees to the Order of Ontario|date=January 29, 2018}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{Ontario MPP biography|id=floyd-laughren}}
{{Rae Ministry}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Laughren, Floyd}} Category:1935 births Category:Anglophone Quebec people Category:Canadian people of Swedish descent Category:Deputy premiers of Ontario Category:Ministers of finance of Ontario Category:Living people Category:Members of the Executive Council of Ontario Category:Members of the Order of Ontario Category:Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs Category:Politicians from Greater Sudbury Category:People from Outaouais Category:Academic staff of Cambrian College Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario