View source for Susan Fish

{{short description|Canadian politician}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    =[[The Honourable]]
| honorific-suffix    = [[Executive Council of Ontario|ECO]]
| name          = Susan Fish
| image         = 
| caption       = 
| office        = [[Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario)|Ontario MPP]]
| term_start    = 1981
| term_end      = 1987
| predecessor   = [[Margaret Campbell (politician)|Margaret Campbell]]
| successor     = Riding abolished
| constituency  = [[St. George (Ontario provincial electoral district)|St. George]]
| office2       = Alderman, City of Toronto, Ward 5 (with [[Ying Hope]]) 
| term_start2   = 1976
| term_end2     = 1987
| predecessor2  = [[Margaret Campbell (politician)|Margaret Campbell]]
| successor2    = Riding abolished
| constituency2 = [[St. George (Ontario provincial electoral district)|St. George]]
| party         = [[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario|Progressive Conservative]]
| birth_date    = {{birth date and age|1945|03|21}}
| birth_place   = [[Rio de Janeiro]], [[Brazil]]
| death_date    = 
| death_place   = 
| profession    = Executive director
| spouse        = Christopher Fish (div.)
| residence     = 
}}
'''Susan de Avellar Schiller''' (born March 21, 1945), formerly '''Susan Fish''', is a former [[Canadians|Canadian]] politician. She served in the [[Legislative Assembly of Ontario]] from 1981 to 1987, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of [[Bill Davis]] and [[Frank Miller (Canadian politician)|Frank Miller]].

==Background==
Schiller was born in [[Rio de Janeiro]], [[Brazil]] and raised in [[Carle Place, New York|Carle Place]] and [[Levittown, New York]]. Her father was a sailor in the US Navy and her mother was Brazilian. Her parents separated when she was three years old and her stepfather was in import/export in [[New York City]].

She attended [[St. Lawrence University|St. Lawrence College]] where she received a degree in political science and obtained a masters in public administration at [[New York University]]. She married Christopher Fish and the couple moved to [[Toronto]] to start a new life. Christopher returned to New York shortly thereafter, but Fish stayed and started work at the Bureau of Municipal Research. She became executive director at age 23. In 1973 she started working as a policy advisor for [[David Crombie]], the pro-reform [[Mayor of Toronto]]. She became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1976.<ref>{{cite news |title=Susan is down to earth |first=George |last=Gamester |newspaper=Toronto Star |date=March 22, 1981 |page=A4}}</ref><ref>per</ref>

==Politics==
Schiller, using her then married name Susan Fish, was elected to [[Toronto City Council]] as a reform [[alderman]] in 1976, and served until 1980.

Like Crombie, she was a [[Red Tory]]. She ran for [[Bill Davis]]' [[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario]] in the [[1981 Ontario general election|1981 Ontario election]] and was elected as [[Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario)|Member of Provincial Parliament]] (MPP) for the [[St. George (Ontario provincial electoral district)|St. George]] [[constituency]] in downtown [[Toronto]].<ref name="1981 Toronto Results">{{cite news|author=Canadian Press |title=Winds of change, sea of security |newspaper=The Windsor Star |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0NtYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QlIMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6285%2C1391429 |date=1981-03-20 |location=Windsor, Ontario |page=22 |access-date=2014-04-01}}</ref>  Shortly after her election, she participated in a rally at [[Queen's Park (Toronto)|Queen's Park]] to support the inclusion of sexual identity in the [[Ontario Human Rights Code]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.web.net/~clgro/history.htm |title=Way to Go CLGRO 1975 - 2000: A Short History |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050309093048/http://www.web.net/~clgro/history.htm |archive-date=March 9, 2005 }}</ref>

On July 6, 1983, she was promoted to the Davis [[Cabinet (government)|cabinet]] as [[Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration|Minister of Citizenship and Culture]]. She supported her friend [[Larry Grossman (politician)|Larry Grossman]] in his unsuccessful bid to succeed Davis in 1985. Nonetheless, she retained her cabinet post under the new [[Frank Miller (Canadian politician)|Frank Miller]] government when he announced his cabinet on February 8, 1985.<ref name="1985FebMillerCab">{{cite news |title=The Ontario Cabinet |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=February 9, 1985 |page=4}}</ref>

Schiller was re-elected with a reduced plurality in the [[1985 Ontario general election|1985 election]].<ref name="1985 results">{{cite news |title=Results of vote in Ontario election |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=May 3, 1985 |page=13}}</ref> On May 17, 1985, she was named as [[Ministry of the Environment (Ontario)|Minister of the Environment]] in Miller's short-lived [[minority government]].<ref name="1985MayMillerCab">{{cite news |title=The new Cabinet |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=May 18, 1985 |page=11}}</ref> After the Tories were defeated by a [[motion of no confidence]] in June 1985, she continued to serve in the legislature as an [[parliamentary opposition|opposition]] MPP. She was defeated in the [[1987 Ontario general election|1987 Ontario election]] by [[Ontario Liberal Party|Liberal]] [[Attorney General of Ontario|Attorney General]] [[Ian Scott (Ontario politician)|Ian Scott]], by a margin of 7,055 votes in the redistributed constituency of [[St. George—St. David]].<ref name="1987 results">{{cite news |title=Results from individual ridings |newspaper=The Windsor Star |date=September 11, 1987 |page=F2}}</ref>

===Cabinet positions===
{{s-start}}
{{Canadian cabinet member navigational box header |ministry=Frank_Miller}}
{{ministry box cabinet posts
| post1preceded = [[Morley Kells]]
| post1         = [[Ministry of the Environment (Ontario)|Minister of Environment]]
| post1years    = 1985 (May–June)
| post1note     =
| post1followed = [[Jim Bradley (politician)|Jim Bradley]]
}}
{{Canadian cabinet member navigational box header |ministry=Bill_Davis}}
{{ministry box cabinet posts
| post1preceded = [[Bruce McCaffrey]]
| post1         = [[Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration|Minister of Citizenship and Culture]]
| post1years    = 1983–1985
| post1note     =
| post1followed = [[Nick Leluk]]
}}
{{s-end}}

She returned to politics in the [[1991 Toronto municipal election|1991 municipal election]] when she ran for [[Mayor of Toronto]] against [[Jack Layton]], [[June Rowlands]] and [[Betty Disero]]. Fearing a Layton victory, the business and development community consolidated its support and funding behind Rowlands as the "Anybody but Layton" candidate, forcing Disero and Schiller to drop out of the race due to lack of resources.

==Later life==
She has served on the Ontario Land Tribunal (formerly the [[Ontario Municipal Board]]) from 2005 to 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pas.gov.on.ca/Home/AgencyBios/462?appointmentId=8635|title = Appointee Biographies - Public Appointments Secretariat}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pas.gov.on.ca/Home/Agency/660 | title=Ontario Land Tribunal - Public Appointments Secretariat }}</ref> She also serves on the board of Harbourfront Corp., the Metro Action Committee on Public Violence Against Women and Children, and Casey House.

In February 2018, as a Member of the [[Local Planning Appeal Tribunal]] she ruled in favour of a 26 storey condominium in [[Burlington, Ontario|Burlington]]'s downtown, in an area zoned for 4 storeys. She justified her ruling by employing two controversial arguments (a columnist called her decision "scary").<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8290175-is-the-sky-the-limit-for-tall-buildings-in-burlington-/| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180228224827/https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8290175-is-the-sky-the-limit-for-tall-buildings-in-burlington-/| archive-date = 2018-02-28| title = Opinion {{!}} Is the sky the limit for tall buildings in Burlington? {{!}} TheSpec.com}}</ref> First, a city's official plan doesn't matter; what matters is the proposed application conforms to provincial growth policy [Clause 39].  Second, she argued that provincial policy says there are no height maximums in urban growth centres and mobility hubs [Clause 54].<ref>http://abetterburlington.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/OMB-Adi-Martha-Lakeshore-PL150274-FEB-13-2018.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>

==References==
{{Archival records|title=Susan Fish fonds|location=|inventory_number=Fonds 1342|description_URL=http://gencat.eloquent-systems.com/torontodetail.html?key=89431|dates=|access_conditions=}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Ontario MPP biography|id=susan-a-fish}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Miller Ministry}}
{{Davis Ministry}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fish, Susan}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Women government ministers of Canada]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of the Executive Council of Ontario]]
[[Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs]]
[[Category:Toronto city councillors]]
[[Category:Women MPPs in Ontario]]
[[Category:Women municipal councillors in Ontario]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian women politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian municipal councillors]]