Peter Zygmunt Milczyn (born January 17, 1965) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2014 to 2018 who represented the west Toronto riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore. He was a member of cabinet in the government of Kathleen Wynne. He was Minister of Housing from 2017 to 2018. Previously, he was a city councillor in Toronto, Ontario from 2000 to 2014.
Background
Milczyn was born in Etobicoke. His parents, Wes Milczyn and Maria Graf, emigrated from Poland in 1963. His mother worked as a journalist in Poland. He attended Etobicoke Collegiate Institute and the University of Toronto where he obtained a degree in architecture. He set up his own design firm, but his interest in urban planning issues propelled him into politics.
His wife, Rose Milczyn, is a former municipal civil servant who was appointed to Toronto City Council in August 2022 as a temporary caretaker councillor following the resignation of Michael Ford.
Politics
Municipal
Milczyn ran for a seat on the Etobicoke city council in 1991. He came third behind winner Alex Faulkner. He ran again in 1994 and beat out eight other contenders in Ward 2 after Faulkner retired from politics.
In 1993, he became president of Etobicoke—Lakeshore Liberal Party riding association. He quit this position, however, when then Liberal Party leader Jean Chrétien appointed Jean Augustine to run as the party's candidate in the riding in the 1993 Canadian federal election. This decision overrode his association's recommendation of Mary Sopta as the candidate. The Liberal party felt that Sopta's Serbo-Croatian background would create tension. Milczyn characterized that as "racist". Milczyn complained that Augustine was being appointed as the Liberal candidate only because she was black. He said, "It's only a factor with me inasmuch as it upsets me that they're using it (color) as a factor." He was defeated by fellow Toronto councillor Doug Holyday, running for the Progressive Conservatives. In the 2014 general election he faced Holyday again this time defeating him by 6,548 votes.
He served as a Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure.
On July 31, 2017, Milczyn was promoted to cabinet and appointed as Minister of Housing.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|Colspan="3" align="center"|2010 Toronto election, Ward 5
|-
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="150px" | Candidate
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | Votes
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | %
|-
|Peter Milczyn ||align=right|9,778 ||align=right|41.2
|-
|Justin Di Ciano ||align=right|9,669 ||align=right| 40.7
|-
|Morley Kells ||align=right|2,725 ||align=right|11.5
|-
|John Chiappetta ||align=right|1,245 ||align=right|5.2
|-
|Rob Therrien ||align=right|339 ||align=right|1.4
|-
!Total||align=right|23,756 ||align=right|100
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|Colspan="3" align="center"|2006 Toronto election, Ward 5
|-
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" width="150px" | Candidate
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | Votes
! bgcolor="#DDDDFF" | %
|-
|Peter Milczyn ||align=right| 8,501||align=right|55.8
|-
|Arthur Roszak ||align=right| 3,856||align=right|25.3
|-
|John Chiappetta ||align=right| 1,668||align=right|10.9
|-
|Joseph Mignone ||align=right| 1,021||align=right|6.7
|-
|Bojidar Tchernev ||align=right| 191||align=right|1.3
|-
|}