Flis was born in
Fosston, Saskatchewan on November 15, 1933. He took his
Bachelor of Arts degree at the
University of Toronto, and received a Master of Education from the
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He worked as an educator and school principal, and was a member of the
Toronto Board of Education from 1956 to 1979. Flis was also a founding director of Operation Go Home (Toronto Branch), and is the recipient of a Gold Award from the Canadian
Polish Congress. He was first elected to the House of Commons in the
1979 election, defeating
Progressive Conservative candidate
Yuri Shymko by seventy-four votes in the
Toronto riding of
Parkdale—High Park. The Progressive Conservatives under
Joe Clark won a
minority government in this election, and Flis served as a member of the
Official Opposition in the parliament which followed. The Clark government was subsequently defeated on a
motion of non-confidence, and
another federal election was called for 1980. Flis was re-elected over Progressive Conservative candidate
Andrew Witer by 5,097 votes, as the Liberals won a
majority government under
Pierre-Elliott Trudeau. He served as
parliamentary secretary to the
Minister of Transport from 1982 to 1984. Flis supported
John Turner's successful bid for the party leadership in 1984. The Progressive Conservatives won a majority government under
Brian Mulroney in the
1984 election, and Flis lost his seat to Witer by 1,460 votes. He served as Coordinator of Special Education for Toronto's Secondary Schools between 1984 and 1988, and defeated Witer by 3,196 votes in the
1988 election to return as a parliamentarian. He supported
Paul Martin's bid for the Liberal Party leadership in 1990. On October 3, 1990, he rose on a question of privilege concerning the meaning of the oath of allegiance to the Queen, and the sincerity of a Member of Parliament’s solemn affirmation, because the week before, on September 23, new Bloc Québécois (BQ) Member Gilles Duceppe (Laurier–Sainte-Marie) had sworn his loyalty to the people of Quebec and vowed to fight for Quebec sovereignty. In reaction, Flis claimed that “when someone else sitting in this Chamber now takes that same oath [of allegiance to the Queen] and then goes and washes his or her hands of this oath, this oath has very little meaning to every member sitting in the House.” So, he asked the Speaker to rule on the matter “because it undermines the role of every member in the House.” The Liberals returned to power in the
1993 election after nine years in opposition, and Flis was re-elected by a landslide in Parkdale—High Park. After his victory, he commented "I'd like nothing better than to be in
cabinet where you can not only make decisions, but implement them" . He was not appointed to cabinet, however, and instead served as parliamentary secretary to the
Secretary of State for External Affairs from 1993 to 1995, and to the
Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1996. He did not seek re-election in 1997. Flis endorsed
Dalton McGuinty's bid to lead the
Liberal Party of Ontario in 1996. Flis died on January 13, 2026, at the age of 92. Chapters dedicated to Jesse Flis were included in: •
Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm: "Dreams and Reality", Toronto 1984, ; •
Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm: Kanada, Kanada..., Warszawa 1986, ; •
Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm: "Korzenie są polskie", Warszawa 1992, ; •
Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm: "The Roots Are Polish", Toronto, . ==References==