Peter Shurman (born November 18, 1947) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2007 to 2013 who represented the riding of Thornhill. Prior to his time in the legislature, he was a radio talk show host on CFRB in Toronto. Background Shurman was born in Montreal, Quebec. He attended Sir George Williams University, now Concordia University, and apprenticed in communications with Standard Broadcasting, holding various positions with the company's Montreal AM and FM stations, CJAD and CJFM, including general manager. Shurman left university without completing his BA degree and started out in technical maintenance, progressing through a number of positions including program announcing, reporting, sales, and management. He moved to Toronto in 1983 and eventually rising through the ranks to become Standard Broadcasting's President of Radio at age 36. Shurman left Standard Broadcasting in 1987. His activities immediately thereafter included buying 14 radio stations for a total of $22.5 million in less than one year for third parties; undertaking an assignment to grow a minor Toronto paging company, into one of the area's largest and most important operators in only eighteen months; applying for an FM radio licence in Toronto in 1990. When the licence was not granted, he purchased an ailing telephone answering service, The Receptionists Ltd., and renamed it Universal TeleResponse Corporation. UTR became a multimillion-dollar enterprise handling 7x24 communications for FP/Fortune 500 companies. After 22 years in the radio broadcasting business, Shurman became CEO and principal shareholder of Universal TeleResponse Corporation (UTR), a major call centre in North Toronto. In 2003, Shurman sold UTR and remained for one year as part of the sale agreement before returning to broadcasting. He was a talk radio host for CFRB until announcing his intention to run in the 2007 Ontario provincial election. Politics In 2007, Shurman ran for the Progressive Conservative nomination for the riding of Thornhill and was challenged by Norm Gardner. John Tory, the party leader at the time requested that Gardner step aside for Shurman. Shurman then successfully campaigned as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 2007 Ontario general election becoming the MPP for the riding of Thornhill. His election provided focus for the issue surrounding public funding of private faith-based schools, a major issue in Thornhill which has a large Jewish (35%) population. Towards the end of 2008, York University (a university that