Editing Donald C. MacDonald (section)

===Paul Ferreira===
By the early 2000s, the NDP was near the bottom of their decline in MacDonald's home riding. Rae had held the riding for 14 years before it fell to the Liberals in 1996. The riding's name was changed to [[York South—Weston (federal electoral district)|York South—Weston]] for the 1999 provincial election and it became a much larger riding than it was when he represented it.

In 2004, MacDonald supported a young NDP Provincial Executive member named [[Paul Ferreira]] in his campaign to be the area's MPP. Ferreira would raise the NDP's vote substantially from 3.7% to over 21%. While not good enough for a win, it allowed him to eventually, after four elections in two and half years, win the seat [[Ontario provincial by-elections, 2007|February 8, 2007]]. Donald MacDonald supported him through all these campaigns and was there to publicly congratulate Ferreira and pass on the generational torch at the victory party.