Against the Odds

In this memoir, David Warner shares an engaging, lighthearted, and no-holds-barred narrative of his journey. " If you think everything is so bad with the Tories, why don't you do something about it." This was the challenge laid out to David Warner, then an elementary school teacher, by one of his colleagues. This challenge sparked a fifty-year political career as a New Democrat, beginning with his attempts to get elected in the 1972 and 1974 federal elections, followed by seven subsequent election battles in provincial politics in Ontario. Despite a pattern of victory, defeat, then another victory followed by defeat, Warner's perseverance ultimately led to his election as the Speaker of the Province of Ontario Legislature from 1990 to 1995. Until his election as Speaker in 1990, there had been only 32 people who had served as Speaker. Additionally, his election was the first time a Speaker had been elected by his/her peers.