Phil McNeely

Philip McNeely is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is currently a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the riding of Ottawa—Orléans for the Ontario Liberal Party.

McNeely was born in Cumberland, Ontario (now part of the City of Ottawa) and is fluently bilingual in French and English. He was educated at Lisgar Collegiate and McGill University, earning a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the latter. He later earned the equivalent of a Master's Degree in engineering from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London. Before entering politics, he was the CEO of "McNeely Engineering", a firm which operated in the Ottawa region. He sold this firm in 1997, claiming it had suffering under provincial cutbacks to infrastructure spending.

In 2000, McNeely was elected as a municipal councillor for the Cumberland district of the amalgamated city of Ottawa, defeating incumbent Robert van den Ham. In 2002, he was responsible for coordinating activities in the Hay West project, in which hay from eastern Canada was shipped to the drought-stricken west. He was also active in opposing the creation of a hog farm the village of Sarsfield part of the Cumberland ward of Ottawa.

In the provincial election of 2003, he defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative Brian Coburn in Ottawa—Orléans by about 4500 votes. He was named a government whip on October 23, 2003.

McNeely described Israel as a "rogue state" in July 2006, arguing that Israel's military campaign in Lebanon was resulting in collective punishment for the Lebanese people. Dalton McGuinty expressed "serious dismay and disappointment" for these remarks, and McNeely later offered an apologized for the language of his comments. [http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=15641fbd-22c3-4320-b77e-617bd78af140]

External links

*http://www.philmcneely.onmpp.ca/