Carl DeFaria (bornc. 1949) is apolitician inOntario, Canada. He was aProgressive Conservative member of theLegislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2003 and was acabinet minister in the government ofErnie Eves.

DeFaria has aBachelor of Arts degree from theUniversity of Toronto and a law degree fromOsgoode Hall. He worked in criminal and constitutional law before entering political life. DeFaria was also an instructor of the Bar Admission Course for theLaw Society of Upper Canada. His wife, Riina DeFaria, has also campaigned for theHouse of Commons of Canada on two occasions.^[1]

He ran for the Ontario legislature in theprovincial election of 1990, as the Tory candidate in the working-class riding ofCambridge. He finished a distant third, behind prominentNew DemocratMike Farnan and aLiberal candidate.^[2]

DeFaria then ran for the federalProgressive Conservative Party in thefederal election of 1993 inMississauga East, placing a distant third, this time behindLiberalAlbina Guarnieri and aReform Party candidate.^[3]

He was elected in Mississauga East by more than 6,000 votes over his Liberal opponent in theprovincial election of 1995, amid a Tory sweep of theMississauga region.^[4] A moderate, DeFaria remained a backbencher during the Progressive Conservative government ofMike Harris.

DeFaria was re-elected in theprovincial election of 1999, defeating his Liberal opponent by more than 4,000 votes.^[5] He supportedErnie Eves to succeed Harris as party leader in 2002, and was namedMinister of Citizenship with responsibility for Seniors on April 15, 2002.^[6]

In late 2002, he was criticized by some for issuing a pamphlet of Christmas songs entitled "Sing Along With Carl". One of the works was aStephen Foster song from 1851, which referred to blacks as "darkies". DeFaria quickly apologized, claiming that he had not scrutinized the pamphlet carefully enough before its release.^[7]

In theprovincial election of 2003, he lost to Liberal candidatePeter Fonseca (a well-known Olympic athlete) by about 3,000 votes, amid a general regional decline in Tory support.^[8]

He ran for the Mississauga South federal Conservative nomination in 2004, losing to Phil Green.

In 2005, DeFaria was appointed director of the Serious Crimes Unit by Timorese PresidentXanana Gusmão. His task was to windup war crimes probes before the UN pullout on May 20, 2005. He faced some criticism that the UN was leaving before the war crime trial process was finished. He said, "Obviously, we would like to have all of the people who have been indicted brought to justice. It will be up to the Timorese government. I'm sure if they decide to pursue it, they will have a lot of support from the international community."^[9]

In the2006 federal election, DeFaria ran for theConservative Party of Canada, finishing second to longtime Liberal incumbentAlbina Guarnieri.^[10]

• Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history

• 1949 births
• Businesspeople from Ontario
• Conservative Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons
• Living people
• Members of the Executive Council of Ontario
• People from Mississauga
• Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs
• University of Toronto alumni
• 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
• 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

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