Early Life and Career
Rodriguez was born in Georgetown, Guyana, and moved to Canada in 1956. He attended Toronto Teachers' College, worked for a time as a teacher in St. Catharines, and moved to Coniston in Northern Ontario in 1962, where he was appointed as principal of St. Paul School. He also attended Laurentian University, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Spanish Literature.
Rodriguez became president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association in 1968. He led a protest outside Queen's Park in 1969, to urge the provincial government of John Robarts to extend separate school funding to grades 11, 12 and 13. He also served on the Board of Governors of the Ontario Teachers' Federation, and promoted greater cooperation between teachers and organized labour.
Rodriguez joined the New Democratic Party upon its formation in 1961. He ran for mayor of Coniston in 1967, and by his own admission was soundly defeated by the incumbent, Michael Solski. He was elected to the Coniston town council in 1971. When Inco shut down its Coniston operations later in the year and appealed part of its municipal business tax, Rodriguez argued that the company had a moral responsibility to continue paying into a community it had helped to create. He did not seek re-election when Coniston was amalgamated into the new community of Nickel Centre.
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