education department where he helped develop the union's political education program for workers and taught Marxist Economics in the CAW's Port Elgin, Ontario education centre. When asked what political party he belonged to, he'd joke he was a member of the "Joe Flexer Communist Party, we have a very small membership but a very lively internal discussion". He joined the Communist Party of Canada while it was in crisis due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and helped organize the split that saw Flexer and much of the CPC's leadership leave to form the Cecil-Ross Society. Flexer opposed Bob Rae's NDP government following its introduction of the Social Contract that suspended collective bargaining contracts for public sector unions. In the 1995 Ontario election he ran as an "Independent Labour" candidate in Oakwood against NDP MPP Tony Rizzo and placed fourth out of seven candidates with 301 votes. He subsequently joined Socialist Action, a Trotskyist group, and became a member of its editorial board. As Socialist Action practiced entryism, Flexer also joined the New Democratic Party which he had previously run against. In 1998, Flexer helped form the NDP Socialist Caucus becoming its co-chair and authored its Manifesto for a Socialist Canada. Flexer suffered from heart disease in the last years of his life. In 1994, he underwent a heart transplant. His new heart failed him after six years and he died in Toronto. He was buried at Bathurst Lawn Memorial Park in Toronto. Sources Joe Flexer 1933-2000 Socialist History Project American communists American emigrants to Israel American expatriates in Israel Israeli communists Israeli activists Canadian Trotskyists Communist Party of Canada politicians Canadian activists People from Brooklyn Jewish Canadian politicians Israeli emigrants to Canada Canadian people of American descent 20th-century American Jews 1933 births 2000 deaths Candidates in Ontario provincial elections Heart transplant recipients Canadian trade unionists Jewish trade unionists