Ted Szilva

Theodore Arthur "Ted" Szilva, OOnt (December 11, 1934 – March 9, 2016) was a Canadian businessman in Greater Sudbury, Ontario.

During the 1980s, he co-managed a successful private lottery named "Pot `O' Gold" that provided funding for Ontario's Catholic schools.

Some have suggested that Davis's decision to fund Catholic schools was predicated, in part, on his government's desire to re-establish control over the lottery sector.

[5] He endorsed Colin Firth's bid to become mayor in 2003,[6] and unsuccessfully sought a seat on the Roman Catholic School Board in 2006.

[8] Szilva and his son Jim published The Big Nickel: The Untold Story, a book about the challenges he faced bringing the project to fruition, in 2014.