Norman Cafik

Who is Norman Cafik?

Norman Augustine Cafik, PC is a former Canadian politician.

Born in Toronto, Ontario of a Ukrainian-Polish father and a Scottish-Irish mother, Cafik was unsuccessful in his attempts to win a seat in the Canadian House of Commons in the 1962 and 1963 elections, but was elected as the Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Ontario in the 1968 election.

He attempted to move to provincial politics, running in 1973 for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party. He lost on the third ballot of the leadership convention to Robert Nixon.

In 1977, he was the second person of Ukrainian descent to be appointed to the Canadian Cabinet when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau made him Minister of State for Multiculturalism. He lost his seat in the House in the 1979 election that defeated the Trudeau government and returned to private life.