Jan Dukszta

Who is Jan Dukszta?

Janusz Romwald Dukszta is a Polish-born Toronto psychiatrist and former Ontario New Democratic Party MPP in the Ontario legislature. He and his brother, Andrzej, escaped with their mother from Poland near the end of World War II and settled in London where they were educated at Christ College, Blackheath. Their father was responsible for resettling and educating Poles in England. He was trained in medicine in Dublin and served his psychiatric residency in North Bay, Ontario.

He was first elected in the 1971 provincial election in the west-end riding of Parkdale and was re-elected in 1975 and by more than 2,400 votes in the 1977 before losing by 900 votes in the 1981 provincial election to Liberal Tony Ruprecht.

Dukszta attributed his defeat, in part, to an anti-gay campaign by a group called "Positive Parents" that targeted NDP candidates in several Toronto ridings because of the party's support for an amendment to the Ontario Human Rights Code to prohibit discrimination in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation.