William Aberhart ~ The Social Credit Premier of Alberta in the 1930's started off as a radio preacher nicknamed "Bible Bill" who played piano and organ in a staid gospel style.
Charlie Angus ~ Guitarist for Toronto post punk band L'Étranger, who recorded two albums in the 1980's and the country rock band The Grievous Angels in the 1990's. Currently a NDP Member of Parliament for Timmins in Northern Ontario. His former L'Etranger band mate Andrew Cash was elected as an MP for the NDP as well. (see below)
L'ETRANGER ~ ONE PEOPLE;
Tommy Banks ~ An Edmonton Alberta based pianist, conductor, arranger, composer and broadcaster starting on local radio in 1960 then on CBC television on CBC on the "Tommy Banks Show" from 1968 to 1983. He also recorded and toured both as a pianist and big band leader. He was given the order of Canada in 1993 and in 2000 appointed to the Canadian Senate by Jean Chretien were he still sits.
THE TOMMY BANKS BIG BAND ~ "HYMN TO FREEDOM";
Honoré Beaugrand ~ Liberal Mayor of Montreal from 1885-87 and unsuccesful Provincial candidate in 1890, among his many other careers he was a newspaper publisher, writer, collector of Quebecois folklore and violinist.
Geoff Berner ~ A BC singer/songwriter paying the accordion in the 1990's Kelzmer-Punk band The Terror Of Tiny Town and later solo has a few albums under his belt and collaborations with Bobby Wiseman and others. He had also run for office four times for the Green Party starting in 1990 and once for teh Rhino Party. Recently he has joined a new far-left party the Eco-Socialist Party of BC.
GEOFF BERNER ~ "Whiskey Rabbi";
Bob Bratina ~ A popular liberal talk radio host in Hamilton and Toronto. Ran for Hamilton City council and later became mayor in 2010. In the 1960's he was a member of Wally Mack Orchestra a well known old time party band with at least one album, and later the Balkan Strings Folk Orchestra. As mayor, while neighboring Toronto has been talking about cutting arts grants and closing libraries, Bratina would been increasing them. After a term as mayor he successfully ran for Parliament as a Liberal and was reelected in 2019.
Edgar Breau; Singer/guitarist with late 1970's cult art-band Simply Saucer and later a solo folk singer. He ran for a seat in the Ontario Provincial Assembly in 1999 for the right-wing Christian Family Coalition Party but got just over 1% of the vote.
SIMPLY SAUCER ~ "MOLE MACHINE" (video done by yours truly);
George Canyon ~ Popular New Country singer who ran for the Tories in 2019 in Nova Scotia (in a riding he did not live in) and lost to the Liberal MP.
GEORGE CANYON ~ "OUT OF THIS TOWN";
Jim Carr; Current Winnipeg Liberal MP since 2015 and provincial MP and deputy leader from 1988 to 1992, now serving as minister of Natural Resources. Previously he was an oboist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, a music writer and Director of The Manitoba Arts Council. Has has returned to play with the Orch.
JIM CARR & WINNIPEG SYMPHONY ORCH;
Andrew Cash ~ Former singer with 1980's Canadian post punk band L'Etranger and later solo folk-punk singer elected as a Member of Parliament for the NDP in Toronto in the 2011 election, but he lost in 2015 and again in 2019. His former band mate Charlie Angus is already the NDP M.P. for Timmins.
ANDREW CASH ~ "TRAIL OF TEARS";
Jean Chretien ~ Liberal Prime Minister of Canada during the 1990's and M.P. since the 1960's. Chretien played the trombone when younger and as P.M. was part of "True Grit", a Dixieland jazz band made up of Liberal M.P.s including Don Boudria on guitar and Roger Gallaway on piano.
Tony Clement; Longtime Ontario Tory MP and former cabinet minister both federally and provincially until a sex scandal ended things in 2018 also has an equally longtime rock star fantasy claiming the Clash as an influence. Luckily for him Joe Strummer is still dead.
TONY CLEMENT;
Gary Crawford ~ A current rookie Toronto City Councilor from Scarborough elected in 2010, Crawford is also billed as a former musician as a drummer in a rock cover band and painter who had served on various boards of arts groups and who ran promising to support arts funding. He had previously run as as Tory candidate provincially and lost.
Don Davies ~ NDP MP for a Vancouver riding since 2008, Davies is also a decent fiddle player.
DON DAVIES ~ "ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL JAM";
James Desautels ~ Candidate for Mayor of Calgary in 2021 running on a Green platorm, previously a concert violinist and conductor with the Austin Pops as well as a violin maker whose previous political activities are as a board member with the American Federation Of Musicians
Ed Fast ~ A current Canadian Conservative MP from B.C. is also a pianist for a white gospel group with his three daughters called Father's Daughter who have toured and recorded even while he was sitting as a MP, and have in fact won a Gospel award.
FATHER'S DAUGHTER ~ I STAND REDEEMED;
Roger Gallaway ~ Canadian Liberal MP from Sarnia, Ontario from 1993-2006. Was also a pianist who played with the Sarnia/Port Huron's International Symphony, and was the narrator of a "Child's Introduction to the Symphony". As MP formed a Dixieland jazz band called "True Grit" made up of fellow Liberal MPs including the Prime Minister Jean Chretien. In 2010 he ran for mayor of the small town of Point Edward, Ontario but lost.
Steve Goof ~ AKA Crazy Steve, the singer for Toronto crusty hardcore punk pioneers The Bunchofuckingoofs (AKA THE BFGS) sine the mid 1980's. Steve Goof also ran for mayor and municipal office in downtown Toronto a few times as well and surprisingly lost.
BUNCHOFUCKINGOOFS ON THE NEW MUSIC;
Ron Graham ~ An Elvis impersonator who ran for Mayor of Toronto in 2003 in which he got 800 votes
Hagood Hardy ~ Toronto based jazz pianist who had a huge 1975 easy listening AM radio hit with "The Homecoming theme" ran as a candidate for the Liberal Party in the Ontario provincial election in 1995 but lost to NDP leader and Premier (and amateur pianist, see below) Bob Rae.
HAGOOD HARDY ~ "THE HOMECOMING";
Stephen Harper ~ Canada's Conservative Prime Minster is a reasonably competent pianist. Famously known for his contempt for "white tie galas" and the arts he recently impressed a white tie gala dinner (including Yo Yo Ma) by playing and warbling a flat version of "With a little help from my friends". He later got to "fulfill a dream" by jamming with Bryan Adams.
STEPHEN HARPER ~ "WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS" (with YoYo Ma);
Leanne Haze ~ A Toronto based singer in a goth/metal band named Haze as well as a Wiccan priestess who ran for the Green Party in the same election as Hagood Hardy and Bob Rae.
Jennifer Hollett; An NDP candidate in the last election, Hollett started out in the 1990's as a member of an all-female hip-hop dance troop called "Shebang!" who worked with Nelly Furtado and Le Tigre. She later became a host on Much Music before moving into politics running unsuccessfully for the NDP nomination for the Toronto Rosedale riding before getting the nomination in the neighbouring riding in the 2015 election which she then lost to the Liberals.
Ben Kerr ~ Toronto 1960's folk singer who became a well known street busker, anti-smoking activist and perennial mayoral candidate running in every election from 1985 to 2003 going to debates with his guitar and singing his theme song "The Fringe Candidate". Kerr died in 2005 and has a street named after him but he never actually recorded.
BEN KERR;
Mike Hurley ~ Current Mayor of Burnaby B.C. is also a bass player who has backed up the now Councillor and former DOA frontman Joey Keithley
JOEY KEITHLEY & MIKE HURLEY ~ "WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER";
Joey Keithley ~ Singer and guitarist for the Vancouver punk band DOA ran for the British Columbia parliament as a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2001 getting a respectable number of votes. He recently announced his intention to retire from music entirely and run as an NDP candidate in the comming B.C. election expected in 2013. He was finally elected to Burnaby City Council as a Green in 2019.
D.O.A. ~ "WORLD WAR 3";
Mart Kenney ~ 1930's & 40's Big Band sax & clarinet player and band leader who recorded several light swing numbers with RCA and Blue Bird Records. Later in the 1960's entered municipal politics becoming an alderman in Mission BC before moving to Toronto where he ran unsuccesfully for Parliament as a Liberal in 1968 but lost the nomination. He died in 2006. His grandson, Jason Kenney would later become a Conservative MP, Cabinet Minister in Stephen Harper's govt and later Premier of Alberta. In 2021 as part of Jason Kenny's revamping of the education curriculum Mart Kenny was listed as Canada's leading Jazz figure which is clearly not true
MART KENNY & HIS WESTERN ORCH ~ "THERE'S HONEY ON THE MOON TONIGHT";
Warren Kinsella ~ Strategist, spin doctor and unsuccessful candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada, Kinsella is also proud of his musical knowledge having been the bassist in a punk band called The Hot Nasties in the 1980's. He still occasionally plays in a part time band. He also wrote a memoir about his punk years. By 2018 he had a falling out with Justin Trudeau and left the Liberals to briefly sign up with the Greens until the backlash about his hardball tactics drove him to the Tories where he focused on a campaign to destroy the anti-immigrant People's Party. That led to more bad headlines so it's unclear who he works for now, if anyone. To be fair hating racists is the one thing he has actually been consistent about, he was also responsible for launching criminal charges to get a rabidly anti-Semitic and homophobic newspaper shut down.
THE HOT NASTIES ~ "BALLAD OF THE SOCIAL BLEMISHES";
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