Politics
Gray served as a Councillor for both the City of Oshawa and the Regional Municipality of Durham for nine years prior to being elected as Mayor in November 2003. The 2003 election was a benchmark for Gray - not only had he unseated a four term mayor (Nancy Diamond), but he had also pulled in more than 40% of the vote in a 5 candidate race.
Gray was re-elected for a second term on November 13, 2006 with a sweeping majority. He was later defeated by local businessman, John Henry on October 25, 2010.
Upon leaving the mayor's office in December 2010, Gray collected a severance payment of $110,821. Severance payments are made to all politicians who serve two or more consecutive terms. In January 2011 Gray had accepted employment as a solar energy consultant, and subsequently as a municipal project management consultant.
Read more about this topic: John Gray (Oshawa Politician)
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“I have come to the conclusion that the closer people are to what may be called the front lines of government ... the easier it is to see the immediate underbrush, the individual tree trunks of the moment, and to forget the nobility the usefulness and the wide extent of the forest itself.... They forget that politics after all is only an instrument through which to achieve Government.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“The average Kentuckian may appear a bit confused in his knowledge of history, but he is firmly certain about current politics. Kentucky cannot claim first place in political importance, but it tops the list in its keen enjoyment of politics for its own sake. It takes the average Kentuckian only a matter of moments to dispose of the weather and personal helath, but he never tires of a political discussion.”
—For the State of Kentucky, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Our democracy, our culture, our whole way of life is a spectacular triumph of the blah. Why not have a political convention without politics to nominate a leader who’s out in front of nobody?... Maybe our national mindlessness is the very thing that keeps us from turning into one of those smelly European countries full of pseudo-reds and crypto-fascists and greens who dress like forest elves.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)