Rick Bartolucci

Rick Bartolucci (born October 10, 1943) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada.

He was a Sudbury alderman and regional councillor from 1979 to 1982 and again from 1985 to 1991, and served as the city's deputy mayor for a time.

He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014.

He represented the riding of Sudbury and was a cabinet minister in the government of Dalton McGuinty.

Bartolucci was born in Sudbury, has degrees from Laurentian University and the North Bay Teacher's College, and worked as a teacher and school principal for thirty years before becoming an MPP.

Bartolucci was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1995 provincial election, defeating New Democratic Party incumbent Sharon Murdock.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Mike Harris won a majority government in this election, and Bartolucci entered the legislature as a member of the Official Opposition.

He was appointed as his party's critic for Northern Development and Culture and Communications.

In December 1995, he helped organize a meeting at Queen's Park where artists and cultural workers criticized the Harris government's cuts to the arts sector.

He later criticized the Harris government's decision to close two of Sudbury's three hospitals, arguing that it would compromise patient care.

Bartolucci was one of the three MPPs prevented from attending the Harris government's first Speech from the Throne in September 1995, when police officers contracted by the government to guard against protesters refused them entry into the legislature.

The other MPPs were veteran opposition member Sean Conway and cabinet minister Cam Jackson.

Many opposition legislators and journalists later described the police presence as excessive.

A similar incident took place in March 1996, when riot police contracted by the Harris government burst into Bartolucci's legislative office without any warning or explanation, just before a melee with protesting public service workers.

The police actions were widely criticized on this occasion as well.

Bartolucci was a co-manager of Dwight Duncan's bid to lead the Ontario Liberal Party in 1996, and moved to the camp of Gerard Kennedy when Duncan was eliminated on the third ballot of the party's leadership convention.

Kennedy was defeated on the final ballot by Dalton McGuinty.

Bartolucci introduced a Private Member's Bill in early 1997 to limit class sizes in Ontario's public and separate schools.

The government dropped this bill from the legislative agenda in January 1998.

He later introduced a bill giving police the power to apprehend any person under eighteen who was involved in prostitution, and take that person to a safe house.

Bartolucci was re-elected by an increased margin in the 1999 provincial election, as the Progressive Conservatives won a second majority government.

He was appointed to the Liberal Party's election committee after the campaign, and later served as Chief Opposition Whip.

The government introduced legislation modeled on Bartolucci's proposal in 2000, and passed it into law in June 2002.

Fourteen months later, Bartolucci complained that the law had not yet been enacted.

In 2000, he criticized the provincial government for requiring that cancer patients in Northern Ontario pay most of their transportation costs to and from treatment in other areas, while patients referred from Toronto to Sudbury were provided with free transportation and lodging.

Bartolucci indicated that he was exploring the possibility of a class-action lawsuit on the matter.

Bartolucci made frequent calls for Highway 69 to be twinned between Sudbury and Parry Sound, citing a growing number of fatal accidents in the area.

He also chaired the JoeMac committee, which undertook a national campaign to have the killers of Sudbury police officer Joe MacDonald moved to a maximum security prison.

The group also opposed what it described as lenient treatment for federal offenders.

The area had been a part of southern Ontario before 2000, when the Harris government chose to include it as part of the north.

Bartolucci had criticized this decision at the time, arguing that it would allow wealthy cottage communities to access funds earmarked for northern development.

Bartolucci was re-elected in 2003 as the Liberals won a majority government across the province.

Bartolucci was endorsed by the Sudbury Police Association in the 2003 provincial election.

On October 23, 2003, he was appointed as Minister of Northern Development and Mines in the newly formed government of Dalton McGuinty.

In early 2004, Bartolucci re-designated the Muskoka District as a part of southern rather than northern Ontario.

Bartolucci announced in March 2004 that he would end the previous government's efforts to privatize the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission.

He also called for the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund to re-focus its attention on job creation, with support from the private sector.

The North Bay Chamber of Commerce and the union representing Ontario Northland Transportation Commission workers demanded the resignation or retirement of Bartolucci, claiming a negative impact on the economy of northern Ontario.

Bartolucci declined to intervene when Inco announced the closure of its Copper Cliff copper refinery in May 2005, saying that he would not compel a company to keep open a financially troubled entity.

The United Steelworkers of America protested this decision.