Contents

Brian Masse

Brian Masse MP
Member of Parliament for Windsor West
Incumbent
Assumed office May 13, 2002
Preceded by	Herb Gray
Windsor City Councillor
In office December 1, 1997 – May 13, 2002 Serving with Peter Carlesimo
Preceded by	Sheila Wisdom
Succeeded by	Ronald Jones
Personal details
Born	(1968-07-09) July 9, 1968 (age 56) Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Political party	New Democratic Party
Spouse	Terry Chow
Children	2
Residence(s)	Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater	University of Windsor Wilfrid Laurier University
Profession	Member of Parliament

Brian S. Masse MP (born July 9, 1968) is a Canadian politician. He has served in the House of Commons of Canada since 2002, representing the ridingofWindsor West as a member of the New Democratic Party.

Masse was born in Windsor, Ontario. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1991 and has completed coursework for a Master of Arts degree at the University of Windsor.^[1] During the 1990s, he was a job developer for the Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities and a program coordinator for the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County.^[2]

Masse was elected for Ward 2 of the Windsor City Council in 1997 and was re-elected in 2000. In 1998, he played a prominent role in preventing a rock-crushing operation from opening in the Wellington Avenue area.^[3]

In May 2001, the Windsor City Council unanimously approved Masse's motion to prevent school boards from selling vacant property lots at the highest market value. His purpose was to dissuade boards from closing schools, though some criticized the motion as working against taxpayer interests.^[4] Masse later called for a referendum on a proposed new arena project, but this was not accepted by council.^[5]

Masse is married to Terry Chow, with whom he has two children.^[6]

Masse joined the federal New Democratic Party in 1997 and was first elected to the Canadian Parliament in a by-election held on May 13, 2002.^[7] The election was called after the resignation of Herb Gray, a long-time Liberal cabinet minister who had been a member of Parliament (MP) since 1962. Masse won the NDP nomination without opposition and defeated Liberal candidate Richard Pollock by 2,477 votes to win the seat.^[8] He was re-elected by a greater margin in the 2004 general election. Masse's success in 2002 was partly due to support from Joe Comartin, a fellow Windsor New Democrat who was elected to the House of Commons in the 2000 federal election.^[9] In 2002–03, Masse supported Comartin's bid for the NDP leadership.^[10]

Masse served as the NDP critic for Auto Policy, Canada Border Services, and Customs in the 38th Canadian Parliament. He also became a member of the newly formed all-party "Border Caucus", examining aspects of Canada-U.S. trade relations.^[11] In 2004, he introduced a motion to restrict pharmaceutical companies from renewing their patent protection.^[12]

During his first campaign for the House of Commons, the Windsor Star ran an editorial opposing him as "a bench-warmer, a yes-man, a political careerist".^[13] Two years later, however, a Star columnist wrote that Masse had "vastly exceeded expectations and quickly developed into an able, hard-working representative who has stayed on top of riding issues."^[14]

Masse was re-elected in the 2006 federal election with an increased majority over Liberal Werner Keller. He served as NDP Deputy Industry Critic. After the election, Masse and Comartin spoke out against the provincial NDP's decision to remove Canadian Auto Workers leader Buzz Hargrove from the party.^[15]

Masse has criticized Industry Minister Maxime Bernier's plans to deregulate Canada's telecommunications market and ease restrictions on foreign ownership, arguing that the reforms could result in a small number of companies controlling the Canadian industry.^[16]

Since 2015, Masse has sat on the NDP frontbench as the critic for Innovation, Science and Economic Development.^[17]

Masse was re-elected in the 2019 Canadian federal election and the 2021 Canadian federal election, on both occasions finishing ahead of former Liberal MPP Sandra Pupatello.^[18][19]

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Graph of election results in Windsor West which Masse ran in (minor parties that never got 2% of the vote or didn't run consistently are omitted)

Results provided by the City of Windsor.^[25]

Results are provided by the City of Windsor.^[25]

Electors could vote for two candidates in the municipal elections. The percentages are determined in relation to the total number of votes.

All federal election information is taken from Elections Canada. Italicized expenditures refer to submitted totals, and are presented when the final reviewed totals are not available.

• Official website
• Brian Masse – Parliament of Canada biography