{{Short description|Canadian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Thomas Charles Cossitt | honorific_suffix = | image = | riding = Leeds | parliament = Canadian | predecessor = Desmond Code | successor = ''District was abolished in 1976'' | term_start = 20 October 1972 | term_end = 21 May 1979 | riding2 = Leeds—Grenville | parliament2 = Canadian | predecessor2 = ''District was created in 1976'' | successor2 = Jennifer Cossitt | term_start2 = 22 May 1979 | term_end2 = 15 March 1982 | birth_date = {{birth date|1923|11|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Brockville, Ontario, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|1982|03|15|1923|11|15|df=y}} | death_place = Brockville, Ontario, Canada | spouse = Jennifer Cossitt | party = Progressive Conservative | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = }} '''Thomas Charles Cossitt''' (15 November 1923 – 15 March 1982) was a Canadian politician.
Born in Brockville, Ontario, the son of Edwin Comstock Cossitt and Marjorie Helen Delahaye, he graduated from St. Andrew's College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto. After graduating, he was the owner and president of an insurance company. He was president of the Eastern Ontario Liberal Federation and a vice-president of the Ontario Liberal Party. However, he switched to the Progressive Conservatives before being elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1972 election in the riding of Leeds. He was re-elected in 1974, 1979, and 1980, the last two elections in the riding of Leeds—Grenville.
Cossitt's positions on bilingualism were a topic of discussion during the 1972 and 1974 elections. During the 1972 election, he took out newspaper advertisements with the tagline "I'm not anti-French, but...". In the 1974 election, he was quoted in the Montreal Gazette as saying "Instant bilingualism is not only stupid and arrogant, it's just plain nuts". Cossitt stressed that while he supported both official languages, it was necessary to consider the financial burden of the Trudeau government's new policies.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Canadian Press|title=Leeds: Language an Issue|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19740622&id=OIIuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=h6EFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1164,1386518&hl=en|accessdate=15 September 2015|work=Montreal Gazette|date=22 June 1974|ref=language}}</ref> Cossitt, who had two previous heart attacks, collapsed from a third heart attack during a photo session at the annual directors' meeting of the Leeds-Grenville Progressive Conservative Riding Association on the evening of 15 March 1982.<ref>{{cite news|title=Leeds-Grenville Tory MP dies from heart attack|work=The Globe and Mail|date=16 March 1982|ref=death}}</ref> He was taken to Brockville General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later, aged 58.<ref>{{cite news|title = Cossitt dies from heart attack|newspaper = Ottawa Citizen|date = 16 March 1982|last = Walker|first = Jack|page = 1}}</ref> His second wife, Jennifer Cossitt (née Birchall) was elected in the resulting by-election and re-elected in the 1984 election before being defeated in the 1988 election.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=5620}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cossitt, Thomas}} Category:1927 births Category:1982 deaths Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:St. Andrew's College (Aurora) alumni Category:People from Brockville