Toronto’s new NDP MPs may not be quite as unknown as the Quebecois contigent of the Orange Tide, but they’re not exactly household names. Here’s what you need to know about the fresh-faced progressives the GTA is sending to Ottawa.
(Clockwise from top left)
Rathika Sitsabaiesan – Scarborough – Rouge River
Rathika Sitsabaiesan is a rookie NDP candidate. She holds a Master’s degree in industrial relations from Queen’s University and an undergraduate commerce degree from Carleton. She was highly active in student politics at both schools, and has represented the Canadian Federation of Students at the provincial and national levels. At 29 years old she’s become part of a new generation of NDP MPs by beating Conservative candidate Marlene Gallyot, a woman nearly 20 years her senior. Sitsabaiesan is also the first Canadian of Tamil descent to be elected to Parliament.
Peggy Nash – Parkdale – High Park
Monday night’s victory was a reward for Peggy Nash’s relentless work in her community for the past two-and-a-half years. She won the 2006 election but was ousted by former Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy in 2008, and since then she has stayed active in the riding, particularly with the Clean Trains Coalition and the U.S. War Resisters. She has a long history in union work and politics, and was the Canadian election monitor in the first post-apartheid elections in South Africa in 1994. As a member of the Official Opposition she wants to make federal support for municipalities more long-term and permanent.
Andrew Cash – Davenport
Andrew Cash’s victory Monday night was remarkable considering Davenport has been held by a Liberal since 1962. It was extra sweet for those of us at NOW Magazine, as Cash is one of our journalists. A veteran musician and passionate advocate for urban issues, Cash ran on the punny slogan of “Cash for Toronto” and plans to use his opposition seat to push for causes that will make life more affordable in Canada’s cities, such as a national transit plan and increasing seniors’ pensions. Although many observers had been predicting a tight race in the downtown riding, Cash nearly doubled up on Liberal rival Mario Silva.
Mike Sullivan – York South – Weston
Mike Sullivan is another first-time MP-elect. An American by birth, he grew up in Windsor before moving to the York South – Weston riding in 1992. Sullivan’s career background is in media: he worked as a radio master control operator for the CBC and is probably one of the only NDP candidates in the country to have worked for Sun Media. He campaigned on his constituents’ dissatisfaction with the proposed Air Rail Link going through the riding, and is fighting for local stops along the line, burying the track in places, and making it electric rather than diesel. Sullivan beat out Liberal Alan Tonks, who had held the riding since 2000.
Matt Kellway – Beaches – East York
Matt Kellway put an end to Liberal Maria Minna’s 18-year dynasty in Beaches – East York Monday night, and by no small margin. He took 41.6 per cent of the vote to Minna’s 30.7. In order to run in this election he took a leave of absence from his job as a policy analyst for the Society of Energy Professionals, a power workers’ union. Kellway has a long history in energy activism. He’s a co-founder of the Toronto Energy Coalition, which fought against building gas-powered generator on the city’s waterfront. He decided to run for the NDP two years ago when he was heading the search committee for a federal candidate and figured he could do as good a job as anyone else.
Dan Harris – Scarborough Southwest
Dan Harris ran as the NDP candidate three times in the 2000, 2004, and 2006 elections before finally winning a seat in Scarborough Southwest. He’s worked on dozens of other NDP candidates’ campaigns and at 31 is a 16-year veteran of Canadian politics. He’s a tech-head, and outside of politics he’s worked as an IT man for a number of well-known companies. His riding had been solidly Liberal since its creation in 1997 but Harris beat Grit candidate Michelle Simson by a healthy 3,000-vote margin this time around in a three-way race that saw Conservative Gavan Paranchothy place second.
