a very close three-way race. He ran again in the 2006 election, but, despite considerable support from the federal NDP leader Jack Layton lost by 2,802 votes to incumbent Carrie. During the last few days of the 2006 election campaign, Alan Clarke, the "sign manager" for the Colin Carrie Campaign distributed a flyer reminding the Membership of CAW Local 222 that the Local was prohibited from supporting Ryan's campaign by a 1993 binding referendum. The flyer showed Ryan and several others having a beer with Alex Maskey the former Lord Mayor of Belfast who was reportedly twice interned for being a member of the IRA. Maskey later became Lord Mayor of Belfast. The flyer also had photos of a bombing in Omagh a town in Ireland and a photo of para military soldier with a rocket launcher on his shoulder Carrie's campaign denied being involved, with manager Andrew Morin suggesting that the leaflet was a product of union squabbling over an endorsement by the Canadian Auto Workers. Morin and Ryan stated that the two campaigns were otherwise on good terms. Elections Canada laid two charges of breaching the Elections Act against Clarke, while Ryan also filed a civil suit. Clarke was later found innocent of the Elections Canada charges and filed a counter-suit against Ryan. Ryan was successful with his lawsuit against Clarke and the Judge ordered Clarke to take out a quarter page ad in The Oshawa This Week newspaper apologising to Ryan and his family for defaming him in the flyer. Clarke was also ordered to pay a sum of money to a charity of Ryan's choice. Ryan alleged that Clarke was working on Carrie's 2006 campaign, which Morin had earlier denied. In the 2007 Ontario provincial election, Ryan challenged Ouellette for the second time, losing by over 2500 votes, a larger margin than in 2003. Ryan considered running for the leadership of the federal NDP in 2017 but declined due to his not being able to speak French, and instead endorsed Niki Ashton. OMERS and Bill 206 For more than 10 years Ryan waged a battle with the provincial government to change the governance of the OMERS pension plan. Ryan wanted the government to allow the stakeholders to have control over investments and day-to-day governance of the plan. Pension surpluses were not being used to raise pensions for some plan members. In 2006, Ryan threatened a political