Simon De Jong

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Simon De Jong
Member of Parliament for Regina—Qu'Appelle
In office
1988–1997
Preceded byriding established
Succeeded byLorne Nystrom
Member of Parliament for Regina East
In office
1979–1988
Preceded byJames Balfour
Succeeded byriding disestablished
Personal details
Born(1942-04-29)April 29, 1942
Sidoarjo, Dutch East Indies
DiedAugust 18, 2011(2011-08-18) (aged 69)
Political partyNew Democratic Party
Alma materUniversity of Regina

Simon Leendert De Jong (April 29, 1942 – August 18, 2011) was an Indonesian-born Canadian parliamentarian.[1][2] He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1979 federal election as a New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) from Saskatchewan. He would spend five terms and 18 years in the House of Commons.

Early life[edit]

Simon De Jong was born in Sidoarjo, Indonesia, spending the first three years of his life, with his mother Dirkje and older brother Hielke in a concentration camp. Of 3,000 women and children who were incarcerated by the Japanese during the occupation of Java, only a third survived. Simon's father, a Dutch mariner, was also a prisoner-of-war. The family were reunited after the war and returned to the Netherlands. They came to Canada in 1951, and Simon spent his formative years in Regina. Despite being an immigrant and non-English speaker and having a stutter, De Jong trained himself in public speaking, at which he became a provincial champion. In 1964, he became head of the student union at the University of Regina, where he wrote a constitution that empowered students and sparked campus unrest.

Community activism[edit]

After graduating, De Jong turned to painting, receiving international notice as a visual artist. However, through a series of sessions with LSD researcher, Dr. Duncan Blewett, De Jong became fascinated with the possibilities for societal change represented by the burgeoning youth counter-culture of the late 1960s. In 1969 he left Regina for Vancouver, where he went to work for The Greater Vancouver Youth Communications Center Society, better known as Cool Aid. At Cool Aid, De Jong, Ray Chouinard and other street workers organized alternative health, work, housing and cultural programs that influenced the future of the city. One of De Jong's colleagues in those days was Mike Harcourt, who would later become the Premier of the Province of British Columbia.

Career in politics[edit]

De Jong returned to Regina in 1975. He ran as the NDP candidate for a Regina-area riding in 1979. His victory surprised everyone including De Jong himself. He would go on to serve five terms, retiring undefeated in 1997. As a parliamentarian, he exposed the spraying of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange by the U.S. military in the Canadian Province of New Brunswick. He was the first Member of Parliament to raise concerns about global warming. He spoke for disarmament at the United Nations; and he introduced a motion to send condolences to Yoko Ono when John Lennon was killed, which the artist gratefully acknowledged when De Jong died in 2011.

In 1989, De Jong was a dark-horse candidate to succeed Ed Broadbent as the leader of the NDP. He finished a respectable fourth in the leadership convention. However, a controversy overshadowed his candidacy. De Jong had agreed to be suited with a microphone in order to assist with a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) documentary on the convention, but forgot he was wearing it and inadvertently allowed back-room negotiations with fellow candidate Dave Barrett to be recorded.[3] The CBC documentary used the tape as the dramatic centre-point of its convention coverage, giving it a sinister spin, as a "secret deal" cut amid "shady" back-room politics. De Jong always denied the CBC's interpretation, insisting no deal was reached. Barrett remained silent about it. The documentarians re-enforced their characterization by mistranslating a second conversation thus gathered, a discussion in Dutch between De Jong and his mother, one of his advisors. The surrounding controversy hurt De Jong but was short-lived. However the scandal had lasting repercussions for De Jong within the party and contributed to his decision to retire some years later.

De Jong remained an MP until 1997 when he decided not to run for re-election in that year's federal election, stepping aside in favour of Lorne Nystrom, who had been unseated four years earlier. After retiring from parliament, De Jong spent time in the United States, Asia and Brazil, where he became involved with the Daime church and its powerful psychedelic sacrament, ayahuasca. De Jong became increasingly philosophical, joining the mystical insights of the Daime religion to concerns about climate change and the necessity for humankind to raise its consciousness. "The more aware we become, the better we become," he said.

De Jong once said of his colleague and friend Duncan Blewett, "He saw light and love and hope where others would see only darkness." This characterized De Jong himself. When he died of leukemia on August 18, 2011, he was mourned by people of all political stripes and beliefs, including former BC Premier Harcourt and Bob Rae, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. [1]

Electoral record[edit]

1993 Canadian federal election: Qu'Appelle
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
New Democratic Simon De Jong 11,178 34.5 -19.4
Liberal Reina Sinclair 10,071 31.1 +16.5
Reform Kerry Gray 7,286 22.5  
Progressive Conservative Tom Hull 3,262 10.1 -21.4
National Jenny Watson 392 1.2  
Canada Party Joseph Thauberger 178 0.5  
Total valid votes 32,367 100.0
1989 New Democratic Party leadership election
Candidate 1st ballot 2nd ballot 3rd ballot 4th ballot
Name Votes cast % Votes cast % Votes cast % Votes cast %
Audrey McLaughlin 646 26.9% 829 34.3% 1,072 44.4% 1,316 55.1%
Dave Barrett 566 23.6% 780 32.3% 947 39.3% 1,072 44.9%
Steven Langdon 351 14.6% 519 21.5% 393 16.3%
Simon De Jong 315 13.1% 289 12.0%
Howard McCurdy 256 10.7%
Ian Waddell 213 8.9%
Roger Lagasse 53 2.2%
Total 2,400 100.0% 2,417 100.0% 2,412 100.0% 2,388 100.0%
1988 Canadian federal election: Qu'Appelle
Party Candidate Votes %
New Democratic Simon De Jong 18,608 54.0
Progressive Conservative William Lawrence Hicke 10,854 31.5
Liberal Larry Smith 5,028 14.6
Total valid votes 34,490 100.0
1984 Canadian federal election: Regina East
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Simon De Jong 20,474
Progressive Conservative Brian Keple 15,185
Liberal Dave Bouchard 9,554
Confederation of Regions Emanuel Fahlman 408
1980 Canadian federal election: Regina East
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Simon De Jong 13,630
Progressive Conservative Brian Keple 12,602
Liberal Anthony Merchant 10,302
Rhinoceros Derron Hoover 302
Independent Jerry White 74
Marxist–Leninist Carl George Beal 61
Communist Gordon Massie 39
1979 Canadian federal election: Regina East
Party Candidate Votes
New Democratic Simon De Jong 15,022
Progressive Conservative Terry Leier 12,972
Liberal Anthony Merchant 12,645
Social Credit Emanuel Fahlman 344
Communist Gordon Massie 65
Marxist–Leninist George Beal 51

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Switzer, Tim (23 August 2011). "Simon de Jong, former Regina NDP MP, dies at 69". Regina Leader-Post. Regina. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  2. ^ Simon De Jong – Parliament of Canada biography
  3. ^ McLeod, Ian (1994). Under Siege: The Federal NDP in the Nineties, p. 30. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company Ltd.
Parliament of Canada
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Regina East
1979–1988
Succeeded by
The electoral district was abolished in 1987.
Preceded by
The electoral district was created in 1987.
Member of Parliament for Regina—Qu'Appelle
1988–1997
Succeeded by