John Baird Finlay

Who was John Baird Finlay?

John Baird Finlay was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2004. His career had been in the school system, as a teacher and superintendent.

Finlay was born in 1929 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He attended John Wanless public school in Toronto, then a PNEU school in Croydon. England in 1936. He returned to Toronto in 1937 and attended Hodgson public school until 1942 followed by University of Toronto Schools until 1947. He then studied at Victoria College, Toronto earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1952.

His teaching career included terms at Upper Canada College from 1952 to 1954, then in Woodstock, Ontario from 1955 to 1964 except for the 1957-58 school year at Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute. He was assistant secretary of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation from 1964 to 1967. He became vice-principal and principal in Woodstock, Ontario, and returned to IDCI as principal from 1973 to 1977. He earned a Master of Education at the University of Western Ontario in 1977. From that year to 1988, he was superintendent of schools for the Oxford County Board of Education.