Michael Laxer

Michael Laxer is a Canadian shopkeeper and political activist. Laxer is currently a candidate for Toronto City Council running in Ward 6 (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) in the 2010 municipal election.
Laxer lives in the Toronto neighbourhood of Long Branch, in Etobicoke, where he and his wife own and operate a used book store.
Previously, he has run for the New Democratic Party in the 2000 federal election in the riding of Scarborough—Agincourt, and as a candidate for the Ontario New Democratic Party during the 2003 provincial election in Scarborough Centre.
In 2008, he criticized the $15,000 entrance fee for the Ontario NDP leadership election as being too high saying, "What you get by doing that is you manifestly limit the number of people who are outside the party establishment, and who have available big backers of one kind or another."
Laxer subsequently began the Ginger Project calling for the Ontario NDP to issue a comprehensive manifesto of polices and build support for their ideas rather than put all their resources into winning marginal ridings. In an open letter to ONDP leader Andrea Horwath, Laxer wrote: "Many party members had reservations relating to the “push to win ” strategy that prioritized certain ridings for party resources at the expense of others. We feel that this strategy should be abandoned, as it has failed to produce any tangible results during an election. The NDP should instead adopt a policy that ensures each riding association has the ability to reach every household in their riding at least once during an election campaign. We should force the other parties to have to engage us seriously in every riding in the province."
He is the son of writer, academic and one-time NDP leadership candidate James Laxer.

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