John Beck

Who is John Beck?

John Beck was a political candidate in Toronto, Canada. Beck was a Reform Party candidate in the 1993 federal election, but was forced to abandon his candidacy after making a series of racially insensitive remarks.

Beck was an heir to the Beck Taxi family, but received only a grade 9 education. He worked as a taxi driver, but was barred from operating in Toronto by the Metro Licensing Commission. He responded to an advertisement asking for Reform candidates, and won the nomination in York Centre, in North York. There was little support for the Reform Party in the area, and there were few candidates willing to run. Beck was given little scrutiny when he applied.

In an interview with the York University student newspaper, he expressed particularly strong views regarding immigrants and Natives. Among them:

"You have a $150,000 guy there coming to buy a citizenship into Canada to create a job, fine, he's bringing something to Canada. But what is he bringing? Death and destruction to the people."

"We came here and took their land from them. I feel that's what are doing to us... they will overpower us."

"Look at the Natives, they're very messed up. That's what's happening to us. We're all being hooked on booze and drugs and we're going to end up just like the Indians."