Paul Calandra

Paul A. Calandra (born May 13, 1970) is a Canadian politician who has served as a minister in the Ontario provincial cabinet since 2019.

Prior to entering politics, Calandra worked in the insurance business from 1995 to 2003.

He then served as chief of staff to Steve Gilchrist, who was the PC MPP for Scarborough East in the Mike Harris government.

In the early 2000s, he had power of attorney to manage his mother's affairs.

Calandra ran as the Canadian Alliance candidate in the 2000 federal election in the riding of Toronto riding of Scarborough East.

He was defeated by Liberal incumbent John McKay by 16,460 votes.

In 2005, Calandra was involved in a family dispute.

In a lawsuit filed by his sisters, it was claimed the power of attorney had been revoked by his mother months before her death in August 2005, but Calandra had invoked it for personal gain.

Calandra's sisters alleged that he had charged $8,000 to his mother's credit card without her knowledge.

In his statement of defence, Calandra said that the charges had been authorized.

The sisters also alleged that Calandra took $25,000 from his mother to pay taxes, but instead wrote the cheque to himself and left the taxes unpaid.

Calandra claimed in his statement of defence that the money was given to him by his mother "freely, without pretext, and of her own volition."

His claim on his campaign website in 2007 to have "complet(ed) full-time university studies" was controversial since, at that time he had not graduated.

He previously sat in the federal House of Commons from 2008 to 2015 for the Conservative Party, serving as a parliamentary secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper from 2013 to 2015.

He obtained bachelor's degree from Carleton in November 2008.

A document filed on September 8, 2008, the first full day of the 2008 federal election campaign, said that the parties had settled the case out of court.

He ran eight years later in the 2008 federal election as the Conservative candidate in the York Region riding of Oak Ridges—Markham.

He defeated Liberal incumbent Lui Temelkovski by 545 votes.

Following his election in 2008, in Calandra's first term he sat on the Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics Committee, Citizenship and Immigration Committee, and the Government Operations and Estimates Committee.

During this term he also introduced two private member's bills.

On June 19, 2009, he introduced ‘An Act to Change the Name of the Electoral District of Oak Ridges—Markham, and on March 11, 2011, he introduced ‘An Act Respecting the Establishment of a National Strategy for the Purchase and Sale of Second-Hand Precious Metal Articles'.

Neither of these bills proceeded past first reading.

He was re-elected in 2011 defeating Temelkovski again, this time by 20,680 votes.

He was re-elected in the 2011 election and was subsequently appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister of Canadian heritage and official languages where he sat on the Standing Committee for Canadian Heritage and formerly the Standing Committee on Bill C-11.

In 2012 Calandra was forced to repay $5,000 that his riding association had received in donations at a fundraiser held at the home of Kirupalini Kirupakaran, at which he had been present.

Kirupakaran was the sister of the CEO of WorldBand Media Inc., which was one of the firms lobbying the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for the 88.1 FM frequency allocation in the Toronto area.

She had pledged to the CRTC that she would invest up to $2,000,000 in WorldBand Media should it win the competition.

The CRTC at the time was under the Department of Canadian Heritage thereby giving rise to allegations of a conflict of interest.

Following questions from The Globe and Mail, and despite initially denying any donations had been received from anyone associated with the bid, Calandra eventually repaid donations made by five people listed with the CRTC as proposed WorldBand investors.

In the same year a controversial $500 donation was made to Calandra's riding association by Stanislaus Antony at another fundraising event.

Antony was leading a competing bid for 88.1 FM with the CRTC for a station to be called STAN FM. Immediately prior to The Globe and Mail 's publication of the article questioning the WorldBand donations Calandra confirmed that his riding association was reviewing the Antony contribution.

The donation was not returned.

In September 2013 Paul Calandra was appointed parliamentary secretary to the prime minister and minister of intergovernmental affairs.

As parliamentary secretary Calandra often fielded questions on behalf of Prime Minister Harper during the Senate Scandal (2013).

In the 2015 federal election, he was a candidate in the Markham—Stouffville riding, created as a result of the federal electoral redistribution of 2012, and was defeated by Jane Philpott.

Calandra studied history with a minor in political science at Carleton University.

In an interview with WhiStle Radio on September 29, 2015, he stated that he left school in the early '90s before completing his degree and had later obtained the remaining credits required to graduate by correspondence course.

Calandra has been the government house leader for the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party since 2019, minister of legislative affairs since 2021, and minister of municipal affairs and housing since 2023.

He previously served as the minister of long-term care from 2022 to 2023.

Calandra represents Markham—Stouffville in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.