Adam Vaughan


Adam Vaughan is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is a Liberal member of the House of Commons in the federal government who was elected in a by-election on June 30, 2014. He is currently the MP for Spadina—Fort York, and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development. From 2006 to 2014 he was a Toronto city councillor who represented Ward 20 Trinity—Spadina. Prior to his career in politics he was a radio and TV journalist.

Background

He is married to Nicole Anatol and he has a son and a daughter from previous relationships. Mimi's mother is journalist Suhana Meharchand. His father, Colin Vaughan, was a noted architect, television journalist and former city councillor, who preceded Adam as Citytv's political reporter until his death in 2000.

Journalism

Adam Vaughan worked at Ryerson University radio station CKLN from 1982 to 1987, and was manager of the station from 1985 to 1987. He joined CITY-TV in 1987 as a producer of CityWide. He left in 1989 to join the board of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters.
In 1990, he joined Metro Morning on CBL as a segment producer. He subsequently joined CBLT in 1994, covering City Hall as a municipal reporter, producer, and director. Vaughan has covered Toronto Police Service, Toronto City Hall, Queen's Park and Parliament Hill in his career. He returned to the Citytv team in 2000.
Vaughan has written for Toronto Life magazine and the Toronto Star. Before becoming a journalist, Adam Vaughan was a cartoonist for Books in Canada, Quill and Quire, Canadian Forum and several other publications.
After Marilyn Bornstein, the wife of the then mayor of Toronto Mel Lastman, was caught shoplifting from an Eaton's store in Toronto, the mayor threatened to kill Vaughan If he reported on his family.

Politics

Vaughan ran in Trinity—Spadina - Ward 20 in the 2006 municipal election. The seat had been vacated by Olivia Chow who left the city for federal politics. He won the seat defeating Helen Kennedy, Chow's executive assistant, by 2,300 votes.
After the 2010 mayoral election, Vaughan was an outspoken critic of then-Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
As a member of City Council Vaughan sat on the Planning and Growth Management Committee, the Toronto Arts Council, Artscape Board, the Board of Trustees for the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Harbourfront Centre Board. Additionally he sat on the city's Heritage Board, and the city's Preservation Board.
In 2014, he ran as the Liberal candidate in a federal by-election following New Democratic Party MP Olivia Chow's resignation. Vaughan resigned his city council seat on May 13, 2014, several days after the Trinity—Spadina by-election was called. He defeated NDP candidate Joe Cressy by 6,745 votes.
He served as the party's critic for urban affairs and housing.
In the October 2015 federal election, Vaughan ran in Spadina—Fort York, essentially a reconfigured version of his old riding. His main opponent was Chow, the person who he had replaced twice, first as a councillor at Toronto City Hall and then later as MP after Chow's resignation in early 2014 to run for the Mayor's job in Toronto. Once the election was called, Vaughan initially trailed Chow in public opinion polls. However, on election day, in part due to a massive surge of Liberal support in Toronto, he defeated Chow convincingly, taking 54.5% of the vote to Chow's 27.4%.
On December 2, 2015, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs.

Election results

Federal elections

Municipal elections

2006 Toronto election, Ward 20--
CandidateVotes%
Adam Vaughan7,83451.7
Helen Kennedy5,33435.2
Desmond Cole7504.9
Chris Ouellette3752.5
Joseph Tuan3592.4
Devendra Sharma2311.5
Douglas Lowry1931.3
Carmin Priolo910.6