worked for Howard Hampton when he was an Ontario cabinet minister. Megan Kathleen is on staff at the Ontario Public Service Employees Union in Toronto and also worked for an NDP cabinet minister in the 1990s. Politics In 1948 Park was elected as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section) (CCF) member of the Ontario legislature for the Toronto riding of Dovercourt. He ran in the 1951 election and was defeated. He ran in the federal election of 1968 as the NDP candidate for York East in Toronto but was defeated, coming in third with 27.47% of the vote. CCF/NDP organizer Park continued his work with the union and the party, holding many roles within the provincial and national CCF infrastructure. Following the federal party's crushing defeat in the 1958 federal election, it was decided that the Canadian Labour Congress would align itself with the CCF to form a new political party. Park was a CLC representative on the Political Action Committee. The reborn group was first called The New Party, adopting a suggestion made by Park, later to become the New Democratic Party. At the NDP founding convention in 1961, Park was elected as secretary of the NDP executive. From 1965 to 1967 he served as president of the federal party. In 1972 the Canadian government appointed Park as labour attache to the High Commission of Canada to the United Kingdom. He also had responsibility for labour relations with Sweden. He died in London on 28 April 1975. His ashes were interred alongside his wife's in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto. References External links Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPPs 20th-century Canadian politicians 1916 births Presidents of the New Democratic Party of Canada New Democratic Party candidates for the Canadian House of Commons British emigrants to Canada 1975 deaths Politicians from County Cork People from Monkstown, County Cork