‘The bad boy of Montreal's blue bloods'

[CHIMO]

Heward Grafftey, known affectionately as the Gnome from Brome during his years in politics, was the maverick Progressive Conservative MP from Quebec who served as minister of science in Joe Clark's short-lived government.

A scrappy, grass-roots politician, Mr. Grafftey represented the Brome-Missisquoi riding as a Conservative for 18 years during a time when Liberals dominated federal politics in the province. He lost two elections as an MP, once during the wave of Trudeaumania that swept the country in 1968, and again in 1980, when he rebelled against his party leader, Joe Clark.

Mr. Grafftey, who died Thursday in Montreal at 81, was a gadfly who often feuded with the establishment. He had a wife and children, but was adept at artfully dodging questions about his sexuality. Although he never declared his homosexuality until he left politics, he never denied it.

“I never had to come out, because it was never an issue. I was never in. I was always me,” he once said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/heward-grafftey-bad-boy-of-montreals-blue-bloods-passes-away/article1465277/