How did a Deaf guy get elected?
It happened in Canada 30 years ago today
I was living in Toronto 30 years ago when the New Democratic Party (NDP) won the Ontario provincial election on September 6, 1990. However, I couldn’t vote because I wasn’t a citizen. I was an American married to a Canadian and had only landed immigrant status. And I was just fine with that.
Then three things happened over the course of the next few years:
· One, the U.S. changed its laws and allowed Americans to hold dual citizenship.
· Two, my daughter Miranda was born in East York (Toronto) and we found out she was profoundly deaf.
· Three, I met Gary Malkowski, the Ontario NDP’s Deaf MPP, who in addition to being my East York neighbor was the most famous Deaf person in Canada. (We actually lived on the same street — talk about kismet.)
Becoming Gary’s biographer
When Gary learned that I was a writer, he asked if I was interested in writing his biography. He had been contacted by an American book publisher that specialized in creating and selling American Sign Language and the Deaf community materials. They wanted him to write his own story, but he was an incredibly busy politician — and he wasn’t a writer. I jumped at the opportunity to be Gary’s official biographer.
