Micheal John O'Brien Biography

Contents

• Personal life
• Career
• Humanitarian Work
• Political Career
• References

Personal life

Career

After graduating with a UofT BSc and a Commercial Pilot's license from Maple Flying School (established by Marion Alice Orr, one of Canada's first women pilots) in Vaughan (now a city) in York Region, Ontario, O'Brien in his early 20s became the Chief Pilot, Specialty Air Services Limited from 1972 - 1979, flying out of what was then called Maple Airport and the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport which is still in operation today.

From 1979 through 1989 O'Brien was a publisher, writer and editor with Maclean Hunter Limited's Business Publishing Division and in 1989 acquired some of the publishing properties including "The Wednesday Report", "The Canadian Yong Astronaut" (terminated in 1992), and "Canadian Aerospace and Defence Technology") he published for Maclean Hunter and merged them into MPRM Group Limited and continued publishing from 1989 to 2004.

O'Brien worked for a time as the Director of Operations for the Toronto Cosmetic Surgery Center which he left in 2014 to both work in several Asian countries with The RINJ Foundation while completing postgraduate studies. Currently O'Brien is the editor-in-chief of the global edition of Feminine-Perspective Magazine.

Humanitarian Work

Returning to Ontario in 1972 O'Brien undertook an extensive life of Community involvement in Richmond Hill, Ontario as a basball convener, hockey coach, member of the Civic Improvement Committee of town council as well as the Canada Day Committee.

At some point he became involved in helping community members locate missing children and troubled teens. This led to him and friends forming a global civil society Group The RINJ Foundation for which he is today the CEO.

Political Career

(How democracy should work in divisive times and close elections.

Micheal's entry into politics at the federal level was in a traditionally Liberal region of Vaughan and Richmond Hill. It was the "1988 Free Trade Election." In a difficult period wherein neither the Conservatives or the Liberals were happy with their candidates, (Aldo Tollis and John Gamble).

O'Brien with a group of community leaders had encouraged Tony Roman to run in York North in 1984 and had agreed to run as an independent in 1988 for the Conservatives if another candidate could not be found or if John Gamble tried to run again.

O'Brien who was declared a winner on election night, November 21, 1988 and despite recounts that went back and forth, was sworn into office as elected MP to the House of Commons and made his Maiden Speech in the House of Commons of Canada on 23 December 1988.

In November 1988 Mr. O'Brien "was declared the winner by 99 votes, was sworn in, and participated in the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement debate in the short-lived First Session of the Thirty-Fourth Parliament".

O'Brien made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 23 December 1988.
O'Brien (seated) being sworn in as an MP by Robert Marleau, Clerk of the House of Commons

In 1988, in the federal riding of York North, O'Brien, endorsed by MP Tony Roman---for whom O'Brien had been one of the community leaders who convinced Roman to run as a "Coalition" independent in 1984---became the candidate for the Canadian federal Progressive Conservative Party.

O'Brien, had initially been declared the winner in the riding of York North in the 1988 federal election. Following three days of meetings with the Liberal election campaign officials at the returning office, a change was noted.

Three days later, as a result of a recount supervised by a contingent of the Liberal opponent, candidate Maurizio Bevilacqua, the latter was declared the winner. Mr. O'Brien sought a judicial recount, was declared the winner by 99 votes, was sworn in, and participated in the Canada-U.S. free-trade agreement debate in the short-lived First Session of the Thirty-Fourth Parliament.

Maurizio Bevilacqua appealed the recount and was subsequently declared the sitting Member by 77 votes (see Journals, April 3, 1989, pp. 2-3).

(According to House of Commons of Canada records, O'Brien sat as MP for the 1st Session and Maurizio Bevilacqua for the subsequent sessions.) It was looking like the Returning Officer, Margaret Britnell, did not no how to count votes. In any case, both men were eventually declared winners and both served as MPs in the House of Commons consecutively.

It was becoming increasingly clear that an unequivocal determination of the electorate's intent was not possible.

Two Ontario supreme court judges found that the number of irregularly cast ballots in the 1988 election had exceeded Mr. Bevilacqua?s 77-vote plurality over Mr. O'Brien.

The election was subsequently voided and the cases of O'Brien and Erik Nielsen have been cited as significant Supreme Court precedents in election law. (O'Brien v. Hamel (1990), 73 O.R. (2d) 87 (H.C.J.))

The Brian Mulroney Government eventually declared a by-election for O'Brien and Jean Chr?en. The by-election which took place December 10 1990 in the Federal Riding of York North saw the election of Maurizio Bevilacqua (Lib York North, Ontario) and Jean Chr?en (Lib) in Beaus?ur, New Brunswick, as Brian Mulroney introduced the General Sales Tax (GST) which was the kiss of death for O'Brien's chances at re-election.

The by-election became the "GST by-election" and the key winner became Jean Chr?en who had become the leader of the Liberal Party and Her Majesty's Official Leader of the Opposition.

This was a first in Canadian History: Two different 'sworn-in' members in the same session of parliament, with only one election. The HoC has since never figured out how exactly to deal with that.

But this may be happening in 2020 during the US Presidential Election if Donald Trump gets his way and corrupts the Electoral College vote on 14 December 2020.

The writer felt this article was important primarily because of what is happening in the United States. Why? Because according to some sources familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment and requested anonymity, the US President Donald Trump, despite his opponent's win, will try on 14 December 2020, to usurp the Electoral College and challenge enough votes, or sway state governors to appoint electors to favour Trump against the will of the electiorate. Technically, this is legal. Out of the nine US States that are described as 'swing states', eight are controlled by Republican Governors. The author suspects that there are sufficient helpers of Trump who will cause a tie in the Electoral College votes.

Ties are broken by a State-Representative vote in the Congress. The Republicans would win that vote by a significant majority because of the makeup of the Congress as regards to the number of state representatives from the two political parties. The Democrats have more representatives but the Republicans represent more states.

This theory is shared by many learned observers. Fareed Zakaria is one such person.

This would be extraordinary but not unprecedented. It would mean that the person who won on election night would not be elected despite having worked for a month on the transition. President Elect Joe Biden would then need to go to court and petition the court to overturn the bogus Electoral College vote. Since the Supreme Court of the United States is now stacked with Donald Trump appointees, that may be impossible and the mess that has been taking place in the United States will likely continue for years and destroy the country if not in civil war, then in total chaos.

Sources unnamed believe that Donald Trump has had this planned for a long time and moreover the plan was authored by very clever people in the Kremlin. It has been suggested by sources that Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani is the go-between communicator in the planning and deliberation, updates and adjustments. Watching the conduct of the Kremlin is instructive. It's message is tuned perfectly to the crazy rants of Trump.

In any case that arises from Trump's extraordinary attacks on the electoral process in the United States, the one thing that Trump is waiting for is his chance to create a draw or a win in the Electoral College in those states wherein there is no prohibitive legislation.

It can be done, hence in the end, the US Presidency will become like the York North Election in Canada, with two victors at different times as a consequence of one election, and the winner on election night becoming the losing candidate in the end, despite having more votes at the outset.

Note: Mr. O'Brien for years would not give the nod to this article. I finally put it to a mutual friend and Mr. O'Brien called me in person and said he would give the nod if the story was accurate. Readers can see from my extensive references below, I took great pains to get it right. History has so many fascinating stories, doesn't it? This could be one of them. It never happened before and it has not yet happened since.---Nymphetamine-Labyrinth

References

Read Micheal's Journalism Background

Explore Micheal's Music

Read some of Micheal's recent articles.