 david james ramsay (born april 23, 1948) is a former politician in ontario, canada. ==background== born in australia, ramsay moved to canada with his parents at age one after having been adopted in sydney, and was raised in oakville, ontario. he attended concordia university in montreal, and after graduation worked as a farmer in new liskeard and a clerk-treasurer in casey township, in northern ontario. he later served as president of the timiskaming federation of agriculture in 1984-85, was a founding member of the timiskaming grain growers board, and served as chair of the timiskaming hospital board for a time. ==political career== ===election as a new democrat=== ramsay was first elected to the legislative assembly of ontario in the 1985 provincial election. he served as member of provincial parliament (mpp) as part of the ontario new democratic party caucus, representing the riding of timiskaming. he defeated incumbent progressive conservative ed havrot by almost 3000 votes, as the once-powerful tory machine in northern ontario began to lose its support base. ===becoming a liberal=== on 6 october 1986, ramsay crossed the floor to join the governing liberals, claiming that northern ontario needed greater representation in government. (ramsay also seems to have disliked the toronto leadership of the ndp, describing it as out of touch with his rural/populist base.) despite an intense effort by the ndp to defeat ramsay in the 1987 election, he won re-election by over 4,000 votes and was appointed to liberal premier david peterson's cabinet.{{cite news |title=results from individual ridings |newspaper=the windsor
1948_births Australian_emigrants_to_Canada Canadian_people_of_British_descent Concordia_University_alumni Living_people Members_of_the_Executive_Council_of_Ontario Ontario_Liberal_Party_MPPs Ontario_New_Democratic_Party_MPPs People_from_Oakville,_Ontario People_from_Sydney People_from_Timiskaming_District