Stuart Ryan, Ottawa Centre

Stuart Ryan, the Communist Party of Canada candidate for Ottawa Centre, works for a Canadian Union of Public Employees local at Carleton University, and is a member of the Canadian Auto Workers. He is currently the President of his local and is a delegate to the Ottawa and District Labour Council.

Stuart has lived in Ottawa Centre since arriving at Carleton in 1979 to take a Journalism degree. During that time he has been active in the labour movement, the peace movement, and in the Central American solidarity movement. In 2010 he participated in a CUPE Global Justice tour that built solidarity with public-sector unions in the Philippines.

“My experiences at Carleton and in my political work have taught me that we must understand the nature of the struggles in which we are involved. In order to defend the public university and the public services we provide, we should build allies to fight for a people’s agenda against the global corporate agenda. We can learn from the victories in places like the Philippines and be inspired by the steelworkers in Hamilton, the workers in Greece or the citizens in Wisconsin who rise up and defend workers’ and democratic rights.”

Stuart is 63 years old and is a single father who shares the parenting of his two young sons, both of whom will be in post-secondary education by next fall. Among his other pursuits he takes karate at a local dojo and is in a community activist choir which sings songs for peace, the environment and social justice. He admits to one bourgeois pursuit: golf. “Every so often I hit a shot that makes it look like I know how to play this game.”