Mitzie Hunter

Mitzie Hunter (born September 14, 1971) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who was first elected in a by-election on August 1, 2013 and later re-elected in the elections of 2014 and 2018. She represents the Toronto riding of Scarborough—Guildwood. She served as a member of cabinet in the government of Kathleen Wynne. She was a candidate for the 2020 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. She was a candidate for the 2020 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election, having placed fourth place with 5.7% of the ballot.[1]

Mitzie Hunter MPP
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Scarborough—Guildwood
Incumbent
Assumed office September 9, 2013
Preceded by	Margarett Best
Personal details
Born	September 14, 1971 Jamaica
Political party	Liberal
Residence	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater	University of Toronto at Scarborough, Rotman School of Management
Occupation	Politician

Background

Hunter and her family immigrated to Canada from Jamaica in 1975. She grew up in Scarborough, graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA, and completed her MBA from the Rotman School of Management.[2]

She was CEO of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, and was previously CAO of Toronto Community Housing. She also served as Vice President at Goodwill Industries of Toronto.[3]

Politics

In 2013 she ran as the Liberal candidate in a by-election called to replace Margarett Best who resigned due to health reasons. She defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Ken Kirupa by 1,246 votes.[4] She faced Kirupa again in 2014 this time defeating him by 7,610 votes.[5]

In June 2014, she was appointed as an Associate Minister for the Ministry of Finance responsible for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.[6] On June 13, 2016, she was promoted to the senior position of Minister of Education.[7]

On January 17, 2018, it was announced that Ms. Hunter would leave her position as Minister of Education to replace outgoing Deb Matthews as the new Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development.[8]

On August 14, 2019, Hunter announced her candidacy for the 2020 Ontario Liberal Party leadership race. At the leadership convention on March 7, 2020, she finished fourth.[9]

Cabinet positions

Electoral record

2018 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Guildwood
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mitzie Hunter	11,972	33.34	-16.72
	Progressive Conservative	Roshan Nallaratnam	11,898	33.14	+5.42
	New Democratic	Tom Packwood	9,917	27.62	+10.7
	Green	Linda Rice	878	2.45	-0.49
	Libertarian	Hamid-Reza Dehnad-Tabatabaei	445	1.24	-0.12
	Trillium	George Marcos Garvida	419	1.17
	Special Needs	Wanda Ryan	159	0.44
	The People	Heather Dunbar	151	0.42
	Independent	Benjamin Mbaegbu	66	0.18
Total valid votes			35,905	100.0
	Liberal hold		Swing		-11.05
Source: Elections Ontario[10]

2014 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mitzie Hunter	17,498	50.06	+14.21
	Progressive Conservative	Ken Kirupa	9,688	27.72	-3.08
	New Democratic	Shuja Syed	5,915	16.92	-11.43
	Green	Jeffrey W. R. Bustard	1,029	2.94	+0.79
	Libertarian	Richard Kerr	476	1.36	+0.87
	Freedom	Khalid Mokhtarzada	228	0.65	+0.33
	Canadians' Choice	John Sawdon	120	0.34
Total valid votes			34,954	100.0
	Liberal hold		Swing		+8.64
Source: Elections Ontario[11]

Ontario provincial by-election, August 1, 2013 Resignation of Margarett Best
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Mitzie Hunter	8,852	35.85	-13.09
	Progressive Conservative	Ken Kirupa	7,605	30.80	+2.15
	New Democratic	Adam Giambrone	7,000	28.35	+8.93
	Green	Nick Leeson	532	2.15	+0.86
	Independent	Jim Hamilton	195	0.79
	Special Needs	Danish Ahmed	183	0.74
	Libertarian	Heath Thomas	120	0.49	-0.79
	Family Coalition	Raphael Rosch	104	0.42
	Freedom	Matthew Oliver	80	0.32	-0.10
	The People	Bill Rawdah	22	0.09
Total valid votes			24,693	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			180	0.72
Turnout			24,873	35.83
Eligible voters			69,425
	Liberal hold		Swing		-7.62
Source: Elections Ontario[12]

References

1. "Former cabinet minister Steven Del Duca elected new Ontario Liberal leader".
2. Rushowy, Kristin (July 23, 2016). "At-risk students, special ed priorities for new Education Minister Mitzie Hunter". Toronto Star.
3. "Ontario Liberals Announce Mitzie Hunter As Candidate For Scarborough-Guildwood". ontarioliberal.ca. June 13, 2017.
4. "Liberal Mitzie Hunter nabs Scarborough riding seat". CBC News. August 1, 2013.
5. "General Election by District: Scarborough-Guildwood". Elections Ontario. June 12, 2014. Archived from the original on June 17, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
6. Richard Brennan; Robert Benzie; Rob Ferguson (June 24, 2014). "Kathleen Wynne warns financial cupboard is bare". Toronto Star.
7. "Kathleen Wynne's shuffled cabinet features 40% women". CBC News. June 13, 2016.
8. "Wynne shuffling cabinet to add new blood and replace retiring ministers". Toronto Star. January 17, 2018.
9. Gibson, Victoria (March 7, 2020). "Steven Del Duca named Ontario Liberal leader in first-ballot victory". iPolitics. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
10. "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
11. "General Election Results by District, 082 Scarborough—Guildwood". Elections Ontario. 2014. Archived from the original on 17 June 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
12. "Summary of Valid Ballots Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2014-05-05.

External links

• Official website
• Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history (archived)