Life and Career
Broadbent was born in Oshawa, Ontario. His father Percy Edward was a General Motors clerk, his mother Mary Welsh an Irish Catholic homemaker. Ed is the middle of three children. He studied philosophy at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, graduating in 1959 first in his class.
Broadbent trained as a Pilot Officer in the RCAF's University Reserve Training Plan.
In 1961, he married Yvonne Yamaoka, a Japanese Canadian town planner whose family was interned by the federal government in World War II. They divorced in 1967. On September 22, 1988, when the Mulroney government apologized for the internment, Broadbent brought up Yamaoka's experiences during his remarks in the House of Commons.
In 1971, he married a young Franco-Ontarian widow, Lucille Munroe; he had no children with her but did become the stepfather to Lucille's son Paul Broadbent, who is a defence policy specialist with the Ministry of Defence in London, England; the couple also adopted a baby girl, Christine. He has four grandchildren.
He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Toronto (1966), and his Ph.D. thesis was titled The Good Society of John Stuart Mill. He is a former member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and is currently Fellow in the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University, Canada.
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