Rick Bartolucci (born October 10, 1943) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014. He represented the riding of Sudbury and was a cabinet minister in the government of Dalton McGuinty. Background Bartolucci was born in Sudbury, has degrees from Laurentian University and the North Bay Teacher's College, and worked as a teacher and school principal for thirty years before becoming an MPP. Politics Municipal He was a Sudbury alderman and regional councillor from 1979 to 1982 and again from 1985 to 1991, and served as the city's deputy mayor for a time. Provincial Bartolucci was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1995 provincial election, defeating New Democratic Party incumbent Sharon Murdock. The Progressive Conservative Party of Mike Harris won a majority government in this election, and Bartolucci entered the legislature as a member of the Official Opposition. He was appointed as his party's critic for Northern Development and Culture and Communications. In December 1995, he helped organize a meeting at Queen's Park where artists and cultural workers criticized the Harris government's cuts to the arts sector. He later criticized the Harris government's decision to close two of Sudbury's three hospitals, arguing that it would compromise patient care. Bartolucci was one of the three MPPs prevented from attending the Harris government's first Speech from the Throne in September 1995, when police officers contracted by the government to guard against protesters refused them entry into the legislature. The other MPPs were veteran opposition member Sean Conway and cabinet minister Cam Jackson. Many opposition legislators and journalists later described the police presence as excessive. A similar incident took place in March 1996, when riot police contracted by the Harris government burst into Bartolucci's legislative office without any warning or explanation, just before a melee with protesting public service workers. The police actions were widely criticized on this occasion as well. Bartolucci was a co-manager of Dwight Duncan's bid to lead the Ontario Liberal Party in 1996, and moved to the camp of Gerard Kennedy when Duncan was eliminated on the third ballot of the party's leadership convention. Kennedy was defeated on the final ballot by Dalton McGuinty. Bartolucci introduced a Private Member's Bill in early 1997 to limit class sizes in Ontario's public and separate schools. The government dropped this bill from the legislative agenda in January