Joe Comartin

Joseph John Comartin (born December 26, 1947) is a retired Canadian lawyer and politician.

Joseph John "Joe" Comartin was born on December 26, 1947, in Stoney Point, Ontario, a small Franco-Ontarian community.

He was the seventh and youngest child of Emery and Loretto (née Quirk) Comartin.

His older siblings were Lucille, Agnes, Rosemary, Alice, Kathleen, and Edward.

Emery was a French American born in North Dakota.

Emery wandered the Midwestern United States during the Great Depression, eventually settling in Detroit after getting a job there as an autoworker.

Loretto was an Irish Canadian from London, Ontario who moved to Detroit to care for her sick aunt.

The two met through Detroit's Irish American community and married.

Emery continued to work in Detroit, but the family also purchased a plot of land to farm in Stoney Point.

Emery died of stomach cancer when Joe was a year old and when Loretto was pregnant with an eighth child, who was named Emery after his father.

Following the senior Emery's death, Loretto began teaching at an elementary school to supplement meager social assistance, financial support from family, and charity from the local community.

She later remarried to Adelard Gagnon, a car salesman from Belle River, Ontario.

Comartin developed an early love for reading as a child, and he often read while in the branches of an apple tree.

During his education he often had to work two or three jobs at a time to help support his family, with his first job being at a grocery store in Belle River.

Comartin attended F.J. Brennan Catholic High School in Windsor, Ontario.

At his mother's urging Comartin originally intended to become a priest, but at 16 he decided that he did not want to be celibate.

Instead, he decided he wanted to become a lawyer, believing it to be a similar form of public service.

While at Brennan, Comartin was elected the eleventh grade male representative on the student council.

He was appointed as the male representative on the school's awards committee after the twelfth grade male representative proved unable to fill the role.

The twelfth grade female representative was Comartin's future wife, Maureen Granger.

Granger was already in a relationship at the time, and she and Comartin did not begin dating until a few years later.

Comartin was elected student president in his final year at Brennan.

Following his high school graduation Comartin attended the University of Windsor, where he completed an undergraduate in political science in 1968, and law school in 1971.

Unlike most of his older siblings, Comartin was able to attend university because of the creation of the Canada Student Loan Program.

While at university Comartin was an engaged student activist; he attended a student strike where he briefly met then-Member of Provincial Parliament Hugh Peacock, and was a founding member of the Windsor chapter of the Canadian Environmental Law Association.

Two years after completing law school, Comartin established a private legal practice in Windsor.

During this time, he specialised in civil litigation and representing low-income women in family law cases.

The Comartin family had traditionally supported the Liberal Party, especially prominent local member Paul Martin Sr.. At the encouragement of his sister, Comartin joined the Liberal Party and campaigned for her friend Mark MacGuigan in the 1968 Canadian federal election, in which Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was elected for the first time.

Despite his initial support, Comartin quickly grew to dislike Trudeau for his arrogance, and he switched parties to the NDP the next year after concluding they better aligned with his values.

Comartin went on to become heavily involved with the regional riding associations of the NDP and Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP).

In the late 1970s, Comartin sued brake manufacturer Bendix on behalf of widow Lucie Dunn to have her husband's death by mesothelioma recognised as a compensable injury.

In 1981, Comartin was appointed co-chair of the Mayor's Committee on Services for the Unemployed by Bert Weeks.

Following Weeks' retirement, Comartin worked as the campaign manager for Elizabeth Kishkon's successful bid to succeed him in the 1982 Windsor municipal election.

In 1984, Comartin left his private legal practice to become a lawyer for the Windsor branch of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the managing director of its legal services.

Comartin also campaigned for city alderman Howard McCurdy's successful bid to be elected MP for Windsor—Walkerville in the 1984 Canadian federal election.

He called for a return to social democratic policies after the party's drift to the centre during the 1990s, and voiced concerns regarding American influence over Canada's economy and foreign policy.

He represented the riding of Windsor—Tecumseh as its Member of Parliament (MP) from 2000 to 2015.

A member of the New Democratic Party (NDP), he ran for its leadership in 2003.

After serving in a variety of leadership roles, he retired from parliament in 2015.

From 2018 to 2022 he served as the Consul General of Canada in Detroit, representing Canada in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio.