Politics
He first campaigned for the House of Commons in the 1980 federal election, and lost to Liberal incumbent Jesse Flis by 5,097 votes in Parkdale—High Park. He ran again in the 1984 election, and defeated Flis by 1,460 votes amid a landslide majority government victory for the Conservatives under Brian Mulroney.
Witer was on the right-wing of the Progressive Conservative Party, and was part of a group in the party caucus informally known as the "brat pack" (Toronto Star, 17 January 1987). In 1987, Witer and Alex Kindy used a procedural mechanism to prevent the quick passage of a bill to establish a permanent war criminal investigative agency in Canada. Many supported such an agency as a means of prosecuting Nazi war criminals in Canada. Witer was quoted as saying, "Canada doesn't need a witch-hunting brigade like the Americans have, because it would only cause anger and panic in East European communities" (Houston Chronicle, 8 February 1987).
He was defeated in the 1988 election, falling to Flis by 3,196 votes.
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