Tony Silipo (August 10, 1957 – March 10, 2012) was a Canadian politician. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1999 representing the New Democratic Party in the downtown Toronto riding of Dovercourt. In 1999 he was appointed to the Workplace Safety and Insurance appeals tribunal. He died in 2012 from a brain cancer.
As Education Minister, one of Silipo's first decisions was to restore national indicator achievement tests, which had previously been removed by his predecessor, Marion Boyd. He was also an active promoter of "de-streaming" in an effort to stop the practice of "streaming" children of immigrant and working-class families into non-academic courses of study.[1]
Although Silipo supported the Rae government's austerity Social Contract legislation in 1993, he was generally regarded as one of the more left-leaning figures in the cabinet. In 1991, he was the only member of Rae's inner cabinet to recommend that the government introduce public automobile insurance to the province. In 1994, he spoke in cabinet against cuts to social assistance and the introduction of user fees for certain prescription drugs.
In 1997, when the provincial government was passing a bill that would amalgamate the city of Toronto with surrounding municipalities, the NDP attempted to block the bill by filibuster. Silipo introduced a list of 11,000 amendments, to be debated and voted on one at a time (many of the specific amendments were read by other party members), which held up the bill for a week and a half.[5]
In 1999, a reduction in ridings in Ontario resulted in the elimination of the Dovercourt riding. Silipo contested the new riding of Davenport in the 1999 election against Liberal Tony Ruprecht. He lost by nearly 5,000 votes.[6]
He was appointed to the Workplace Safety and Insurance appeals tribunal by Labour Minister Chris Stockwell in 1999.[7] In 2003, he became president of the newly formed Federation of Calabrese in Ontario. He died in 2012 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour. He was 54.[1]