{{Short description|Canadian politician (1923–2012)}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Leonard Braithwaite | image = | caption = | office = Ontario MPP | constituency = Etobicoke | term_start = 1963 | term_end = 1975 | predecessor = ''Riding established'' | successor = Ed Philip | party = Ontario Liberal | birth_name = Leonard Austin Braithwaite | birth_date = {{birth date|1923|10|23}} | death_date = {{death date and age|2012|03|28|1923|10|23}} | birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | occupation = Lawyer | spouse = Anne Braithwaite<ref name="63 election results"/> | children = Roger<br />David<ref name="Star Obit"/> <!--Military service--> | nickname = | allegiance = Canada | branch = Royal Canadian Air Force | service_years = 1943-46 | rank = DAC | unit = 6th Bomber Group | commands = | battles = | awards = }}
'''Leonard Austin Braithwaite''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|CM|OOnt|QC}} (October 23, 1923 – March 28, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer and former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the Liberal Party from 1963 to 1975. He was the first Black Canadian to be elected to the Ontario Legislature.<ref name="63 election results"> {{cite news | author = Star Staff | title = Wins Etobicoke: Braithwaite Ontario's First Negro MPP | newspaper = The Toronto Daily Star | date = 26 September 1963 | page = 19 | issn = 0319-0781 | url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-toronto-star-braithwaite-ontarios-f/155899164/ | access-date = 24 September 2024 | via = Newspapers.com | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240924055140/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-toronto-star-braithwaite-ontarios-f/155899164/ | archive-date = 24 September 2024 | url-status = live }}</ref>
==Background== Braithwaite was born in Toronto, Ontario, to a Barbadian father and a Jamaican mother. Leonard served overseas with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto in 1950. He then received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Business School in 1952, and graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1958.<ref name="63 election results"/> He practiced as a barrister and solicitor, and was named a Queen's Counsel in 1971.
==Political career== His political career began in 1960, when he was elected to Ward Four of the Etobicoke township board of education.<ref name="63 election results"/> Braithwaite was president of Etobicoke ratepayer's association at the time, and was elected because of demand for a high school north of Eglinton. Two years later, he was elected as an alderman on the Etobicoke council.<ref name="63 election results"/>
Braithwaite ran for the Liberals in the 1963 provincial election, and defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Geoffrey Grossmith to win the newly created constituency of Etobicoke by 446 votes.<ref name="63 election results"/> The original declared result showed Grossmith winning by over 500 votes, and Braithwaite was only declared elected after a serious error in the vote totals was discovered by his campaign team. The Returning Officer claimed it was an accident, due to pre-count tests of the mechanical adding machines that were not cleared before the official count began.<ref name="Lartey 2009 p.25—27">Lartey 2009, p. 25—27.</ref>
Braithwaite helped to revoke a section of the Ontario Separate Schools act that had allowed for racial segregation in public schools, when he asked the Legislature to "get rid of the old race law" during his maiden speech at Queen's Park on February 4, 1964.<ref name="ToStar 19640205"> {{Cite news | author = Star Staff | date = 5 February 1964 | title = Get rid of old race law--Negro MPP | work = The Toronto Daily Star | location = Toronto | publisher = Torstar | issn = 0319-0781 | page = 35 | url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-toronto-star-get-rid-of-old-race-law/184590685/ | access-date = 8 November 2025 | via = Newspapers.com }}</ref> He also called for the admission of female legislative pages in 1966.<ref name="ToStar 19660323"> {{Cite news | author = Star Staff | date = 23 March 1966 | title = Let's have girl pages in House says MPP | work = The Toronto Daily Star | location = Toronto | publisher = Torstar | issn = 0319-0781 | page = 14 | url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-toronto-star-lets-have-girl-pages-i/184591691/ | access-date = 8 November 2025 | via = Newspapers.com }}</ref> He was re-elected in 1967 and 1971, and served as the Liberal Party Critic for Labour and Welfare.
He was defeated in the 1975 election, losing to New Democratic Party candidate Ed Philip by 1,256 votes in the redistributed electoral district.<ref name="TOStar 19750919"> {{Cite news | author = Star Staff | date = 19 September 1975 | title = NDP Scores in Etobicoke–Liberal dumped after 12 years | work = The Toronto Star | location = Toronto | publisher = Torstar | issn = 0319-0781 | page = A16 | url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-toronto-star-ndp-scores-in-etobicoke/184592209/ | access-date = 8 November 2025 | via = Newspapers.com }}</ref> He was elected a city controller on the Etobicoke City Council in 1982.<ref name="ToStar 19850404">{{cite news|last=Burbidge|first=Kate|title=Braithwaite blasts Miller on oil pact|newspaper=The Toronto Star|date=1985-04-04|location=Toronto|page=A9}}</ref> He attempted a return to the provincial legislature during the 1985 election;<ref name="ToStar 19850404"/> he was a last minute candidate, as the York West Liberal constituency association could not find anyone to run against the Progressive Conservative incumbent Nick Leluk, who was also the Minister of Correctional Services at the time. Braithwaite lost by 715 votes,<ref name="Globe 19850503"> {{Cite news | author = Globe Staff | date = 3 May 1985 | title = Results of Vote in Ontario Election: Metro Toronto | work = The Globe and Mail | location = Toronto | publisher = Thomson Corporation | issn = 0319-0714 | page = 13 | url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-globe-and-mail-results-of-vote-in-on/184589020/ | access-date = 8 November 2025 | via = Newspapers.com }}</ref> significantly closer than his constituency association originally expected, as they thought Leluk would win by a massive rout.<ref name="Lartey 2009 p.28">Lartey 2009, p. 28.</ref> Braithwaite did not run again, and neither did Leluk in the next election, two-years later.
==Post-political career and awards== Braithwaite became a bencher of the Governing Council of The Law Society of Upper Canada in 1999. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1997, and invested into the order on February 4, 1998.<ref name="Order of Canada">{{cite web|title=Leonard Austin Braithwaite, C.M., Q.C., M.B.A. |url=http://gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=3709&t=12&ln=Braithwaite |work=It's an Honour: Order of Canada |publisher=The Queen's Printer for Canada |accessdate=8 November 2025 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422163639/http://gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=3709&t=12&ln=Braithwaite |archivedate=22 April 2012 |location=Ottawa |year=2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2004. Braithwaite died in Toronto on March 28, 2012, at the age of 88.<ref name="Star Obit"> {{Cite news | last1 = Ferguson | first1 = Rob | date = 5 April 2012 | title = Ontario's first black MPP, Leonard Braithwaite, dies at 88 | work = Toronto Star | location = Toronto | publisher = Torstar | issn = 0319-0781 | url = https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1157420--ontario-s-first-black-mpp-leonard-braithwaite-dies-at-88?bn=1 | access-date = 8 November 2025 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20240525205449/https://www.webcitation.org/66jhi0ERn?url=http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1157420--ontario-s-first-black-mpp-leonard-braithwaite-dies-at-87%3Fbn=1 | archive-date = 25 May 2024 | url-status = dead }}</ref> <ref name="DEATH"> {{Cite news | author = CP Staff | date = 5 April 2012 | title = First black member of Ont. legislature dead at 88 | work = CTV News | location = Toronto | agency = The Canadian Press | url = https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/first-black-member-of-ont-legislature-dead-at-88-1.792535 | access-date = 8 November 2025 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160203064917/https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/first-black-member-of-ont-legislature-dead-at-88-1.792535 | archivedate = 3 February 2016 | url-status = dead }}</ref> In 2012, the City of Toronto a park in the Etobicoke electoral district he represented to Len Braithwaite Park in his honour.<ref> {{Cite web | author = City Staff | year = 2025 | title = Len Braitwaite Park | website = City of Toronto | url = https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/parks-recreation/places-spaces/parks-and-recreation-facilities/location/?id=851&title=Len-Braithwaite-Park
| access-date = 8 November 2025 }}</ref>
==References==
===Citations=== {{Reflist|30em}}
===Bibliography=== * {{cite web|last=Lartey|first=Stanley C.|title=MY VISIT WITH LEONARD A. BRAITHWAITE, C.M., O.Ont., Q.C.|url=http://www.blackhistorysociety.ca/UserFiles/File/Braithwaite-Life-Story.pdf|publisher=Ontario Black History Society|accessdate=2011-12-28|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415055751/https://blackhistorysociety.ca/UserFiles/File/Braithwaite-Life-Story.pdf|archivedate=2012-04-15|location=Toronto|year=2009}}
==External links== * {{Ontario MPP biography|id=leonard-a-braithwaite|name=Leonard A. Braithwaite|old_id=922}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braithwaite, Leonard}} Category:1923 births Category:2012 deaths Category:Black Canadian politicians Category:Canadian Anglicans Category:Royal Canadian Air Force personnel of World War II Category:Harvard Business School alumni Category:Lawyers in Ontario Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Members of the Order of Ontario Category:Metropolitan Toronto councillors Category:Ontario Liberal Party MPPs Category:Osgoode Hall Law School alumni Category:People from Etobicoke Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Canadian King's Counsel Category:Black Canadian lawyers Category:Royal Canadian Air Force airmen Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Category:Canadian people of Barbadian descent Category:Canadian people of Jamaican descent