Tony Wong (Canadian politician)

Wong died of liver failure on June 17, 2009 at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. He is survived by his wife Ellee and his daughter Daphne.

On September 25, 2006, Wong resigned his seat in the legislature to run for York Regional Council. He won one of four seats in November 2006. He served in council until March 2009 and took a leave of absence. Wong was expected to return to council in September.

In the 2003 provincial election, he contested Markham for the Liberal Party against David Tsubouchi, a prominent cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves. Markham had been represented by the Progressive Conservative Party since its creation in 1987, and it was anticipated that Tsubouchi would be re-elected despite a strong provincial swing to the Liberals; instead, Wong defeated him by 5,996 votes. Wong acknowledged that his candidacy benefited from a large ethnic Chinese immigrant population in the riding.

In 1997 Wong, ran for the municipal council in Markham, Ontario. He received 1,406 votes defeating his nearest rival by 774 votes. In the 2000 election, he was elected as one of four regional councillors. He was a leading figure in calling for reconciliation between the city's Chinese and Muslim communities in 1999, after a controversy concerning the construction of a local mosque. In 2003, he spoke against an attempt by the government of China to enact "anti-subversion" legislation in Hong Kong (many recent Chinese immigrants in Markham have dual Canadian/Hong Kong citizenship).

Tony Wong (born Wong Chi-wah; December 12, 1948 – June 17, 2009) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2006 representing the Greater Toronto Area riding of Markham. He was a municipal councillor for the city of Markham from 1997 to 2004 and served as a York Region Councillor from 2006 to 2009.