Simon De Jong
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Simon Leendert De Jong (born 1942) is a former Canadian parliamentarian. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1979 federal election as an New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) from Saskatchewan.
In 1989, he was a candidate to succeed Ed Broadbent as the party's leader. He finished fourth in the leadership convention. De Jong had agreed to be suited with a microphone in order to assist with a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) documentary on the convention, but forgot he was wearing it and inadvertently allowed back-room negotiations with fellow candidate Dave Barrett to be recorded. In these discussions, De Jong agreed to support Dave Barrett in exchange for being named House Leader. More embarrassingly, a tearful telephone conversation with De Jong's mother was also broadcast.
De Jong remained an MP until 1997 when he decided not to run for re-election in that year's federal election.