Kirsty Duncan

Kirsty Ellen Duncan PC MP (born October 31, 1966) is a Canadian politician and medical geographer from Ontario, Canada. Duncan is the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Toronto riding of Etobicoke North and Duncan serves as deputy leader of the government in the House of Commons. Duncan has previously served as minister of science and minister of sport and persons with disabilities. [2] She has published a book about her 1998 expedition to uncover the cause of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.

The Honourable Kirsty Duncan PC MP
Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
Incumbent
Assumed office November 20, 2019
Prime Minister	Justin Trudeau
Preceded by	Chris Bittle
Minister of Science and Sport
In office November 4, 2015 – November 20, 2019
Prime Minister	Justin Trudeau
Preceded by	Herself (Sport and Persons with Disabilities) Ed Holder (Science and Technology)
Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities
In office January 25, 2018 – July 18, 2018
Prime Minister	Justin Trudeau
Preceded by	Kent Hehr
Succeeded by	Herself (sport) Carla Qualtrough (persons with disabilities)
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Etobicoke North
Incumbent
Assumed office October 14, 2008
Preceded by	Roy Cullen
Personal details
Born	Kirsty Ellen Duncan October 31, 1966 Etobicoke, Ontario
Political party	Liberal
Residence	Etobicoke, Ontario[1]
Profession	Medical geographer, professor, politician
Website	kirstyduncan.liberal.ca

Education

After graduating from Kipling Collegiate Institute in 1985 as an Ontario scholar, Duncan studied geography and anthropology at the University of Toronto. She then entered graduate school at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and completed a Ph.D. in geography in 1992.[3]

Career

Duncan was an associate professor of Health Studies at the University of Toronto, where she taught global environmental processes and medical geography.[4] Duncan is the former research director for the AIC Institute of Corporate Citizenship at the Rotman School of Management.[5] As well, Duncan served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization which won the Nobel Prize in 2007.[6]

From 1993 to 2000, Duncan taught meteorology, climatology and climate change at the University of Windsor.[7] In 1992, as she became aware of the increasing probability of a global flu crisis, she was led to investigate the cause of the similar 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, saying, "I was horrified we didn’t know what caused Spanish flu, and also knew that if we could find fragments of the virus, we might be able to find a better flu vaccine".[8]

Though at the time she "knew nothing about influenza",[9] she began what she called a "six-month crash course in virology".[9] Eventually, she began searching for possible frozen samples of lung and brain tissue that might contain the virus. Her initial thoughts led her to think of Alaska,[9] as it contains large areas of permafrost, which would leave the viruses intact, but the search proved fruitless.

Eventually, after several years of searching, Duncan learned of seven miners who had died from the Spanish flu and were buried in the small town of Longyearbyen, Norway, an area that would contain permafrost. She then began assembling a team of scientists to accompany her. After several more years of preparation, which involved garnering various permissions to perform the exhumations, the ground survey began in 1998. The expedition was exemplary in terms of biosafety procedures and treatment of culturally sensitive sites. However, it did not yield samples from which the virus could be reconstructed, as the bodies were not in permafrost.[10]

In 2003, Duncan wrote a book about her expedition, entitled Hunting the 1918 Flu: One Scientist's Search for a Killer Virus. Published by the University of Toronto Press, it details Duncan's process and the expedition itself. After the book's publication, Duncan began speaking about pandemics, which led her to begin teaching corporate social responsibility at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. In 2008, Duncan published a second book, Environment and Health: Protecting our Common Future.

Duncan is currently an adjunct professor teaching both medical geography at the University of Toronto and global environmental processes at Royal Roads University, and served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization that won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.[11]

In 2018, the University of Edinburgh awarded her an honorary degree.[12]

Federal politics

In February 2008, Roy Cullen announced that he would not be running in the next federal election[13] and Duncan was appointed as the next Liberal candidate. She was elected in the 2008 general election and re-elected in the 2011, 2015, and 2019 general elections.

On November 4, 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed her to the Cabinet as minister of science.[14] Duncan was tasked with establishing the new position of chief science officer that would serve as a replacement to the national science adviser role eliminated by Stephen Harper in 2008.[3] As well Duncan became minister for sports and persons with disabilities after Kent Hehr resigned from cabinet following sexual misconduct allegations.[15]

Duncan with Justin Trudeau and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, India, 2018

As minister of science and sport, Duncan has made ending abuse and harassment in sport her priority since taking over the portfolio in January 2018.[16] She wants to institute a series of initiatives, including establishing new policy for national sports organizations, funding the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada to create an investigation unit, and setting up a toll-free confidential tipline for athletes and witnesses to call if they experience abuse.[16] Duncan's action items include creating a code of conduct with sanctions and finding a way to prevent coaches or officials from freely moving to another province or club after allegations of abuse.[16] Currently this action item is a work in progress.[16]

Duncan's priority as minister of science was to "unmuzzle our scientists".[17] Duncan was able to bring back the long-form census and chief scientific advisor.[18]

In 2019, Duncan won her Etobicoke North seat in west Toronto.[19]

Duncan reported that the government in 2018 devoted $2.8 billion to renewing Canada's federal science laboratories because they said that they understand the critical role that government researchers play in Canada's science and research community.[20]

She was re-elected in the 2019 federal election, following which Duncan was appointed deputy leader of the government in the House of Commons.[21]

Controversies

Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a proposed extremely large telescope (ELT) that has become controversial due to its planned location on Mauna Kea, which is considered sacred land according to the native Hawaiians, on the island of Hawaii in the United States.[22]The Government of Canada has made a commitment to spend $243.5 million over a period of 10 years for the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope.[23] The telescope's enclosure was designed by Dynamic Structures Ltd. in British Columbia.[24] In an online petition, a group of Canadian academics have called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau together with Industry Minister Navdeep Bains and Science Minister Kirsty Duncan to divest Canadian funding from the project. The online petition titled "A Call to Divest Canada's Research Funding for the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea" was posted to Change.org on July 20, 2019.[25]

Electoral record

2019 Canadian federal election: Etobicoke North
** Preliminary results — Not yet official **
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Kirsty Duncan	26,388	61.4	-1.01
	Conservative	Sarabjit Kaur	9,524	22.2	-0.80
	New Democratic	Naiima Farah	4,654	10.8	-1.61
	People's	Renata Ford	1,196	2.8	-
	Green	Nancy Ghuman	1,080	2.5	+1.25
	Canada's Fourth Front	Sudhir Mehta	104	0.2	-
Total valid votes/Expense limit			42,946	100.0
Total rejected ballots			565
Turnout			43,511	58.8
Eligible voters			73,970
Source: Elections Canada[26][27]

2015 Canadian federal election: Etobicoke North
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Kirsty Duncan	26,251	62.41	+19.84	$69,670.96
	Conservative	Toyin Dada	9,673	23.00	-8.96	$60,237.66
	New Democratic	Faisal Hassan	5,220	12.41	-11.21	$37,513.09
	Green	Akhtar Ayub	524	1.25	+1.08	$1,558.16
	Marxist–Leninist	Anna Di Carlo	232	0.55		–
	No affiliation	George Szebik	164	0.39	–	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			42,064	100.00		$201,932.10
Total rejected ballots			257	0.61	–
Turnout			42,321	62.18	–
Eligible voters			68,063
	Liberal hold		Swing		+14.40
Source: Elections Canada[28][29]

2011 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Kirsty Duncan	13,665	42.4	-6.2
	Conservative	Priti Lamba	10,357	32.1	+2.0
	New Democratic	Diana Andrews	7,630	23.7	+8.0
	Libertarian	Alex Dvornyak	208	0.7	-4.1
	Marxist–Leninist	Anna Di Carlo	189	0.6	-0.4
	Christian Heritage	John C. Gardner	186	0.6	–
Total valid votes			32,235	100.0
Total rejected ballots			279	0.9	+0.2
Turnout			32,514	52.5
Eligible voters			61,930	–	–
	Liberal hold		Swing		-4.1

2008 Canadian federal election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Kirsty Duncan	15,244	48.6	-13.0	$54,827
	Conservative	Bob Saroya	9,436	30.1	+7.8	$64,024
	New Democratic	Ali Naqvi	4,940	15.7	+5.1	$35,653
	Green	Nigel Barriffe	1,460	4.7	+2.1	$2,242
	Marxist–Leninist	Anna Di Carlo	300	1.0	+0.4
Total valid votes/Expense limit			31,380	100.0	$79,011
Total rejected ballots			214	0.68
Turnout			31,594
	Liberal hold		Swing		-10.4

See also

• Johan Hultin, a pathologist who also used frozen tissues to study the 1918 influenza virus

References

1. "Official Voting Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
2. "Federal election 2019: Liberals maintain hold on key ridings in vote-rich Ontario". Retrieved 2019-12-12.
3. Jones, Nicola (24 December 2015). "Canada's top scientist faces tough challenge". Nature. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
4. "Biography | Kirsty Duncan | Your member of parliament for Etobicoke North". kirstyduncan.liberal.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
5. "The Honourable Kirsty Duncan". Research Canada. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
6. "Biography | Kirsty Duncan | Your member of parliament for Etobicoke North". kirstyduncan.liberal.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
7. "New federal cabinet boasts UWindsor ties". DailyNews. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
8. Gladwell, Malcolm (September 29, 1997). "The Dead Zone". The New Yorker.
9. Duncan, Kirsty (2003). Hunting the 1918 Flu: One Scientist's Search for a Killer Virus. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-8748-5.
10. "Excavating the Flu". Defining Moments Canada. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
11. "Advisory Board". Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
12. "Honorary Graduates in 2018". The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
13. Shephard, Tamara (2008-09-04). "Election call expected Sunday". Toronto Community News. Metroland Media Group. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
14. "Full list of Justin Trudeau's cabinet". CBC. 4 November 2015. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
15. "Justin Trudeau keeps saying science minister is a Nobel Prize winner; she's not". Global News. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
16. Chidley-Hill, John (August 16, 2019). "Canada's minister of sport Kirsty Duncan: More anti-abuse work to be done". CBC. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
17. News, Alastair Sharp in; August 16th 2019, Politics | (2019-08-16). "How the Trudeau government reversed Harper's anti-science agenda". National Observer. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
18. Sharp, Alastair (2019-08-16). "How the Trudeau government reversed Harper's anti-science agenda". National Observer. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
19. "Federal election 2019: Liberals maintain hold on key ridings in vote-rich Ontario". Retrieved 2019-12-12.
20. "Industry Committee on May 30th, 2019 | openparliament.ca". openparliament.ca. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
21. "Deputy PM Freeland to oversee relations with U.S. and provinces in Trudeau's new cabinet". Retrieved 2019-11-20.
22. "Canadian government faces call to revoke giant telescope project funding". canada.constructconnect.com. 29 July 2019. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
23. "Canada finally commits its share of funds for Thirty Meter Telescope". CBC News.
24. Semeniuk, Ivan. "With $243-million contribution, Canada signs on to mega-telescope in search of first stars and other Earths". Globe and Mail.
25. Ivan Semeniuk (22 July 2019). "Thirty Meter Telescope dispute puts focus on Canada's role". www.theglobeandmail.com. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
26. "List of confirmed candidates". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
27. "Election Night Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
28. "Voter Information Service - Who are the candidates in my electoral district?". www.elections.ca.
29. Elections Canada – Final Candidates Election Expenses Limits

External links

• Kirsty Duncan – Parliament of Canada biography