Judi Tyabji Wilson
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Judeline (Judi) Tyabji Wilson was a political figure in British Columbia, Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Victoria. Tyabji first ran for election in a by-election in Penticton during the stormy VanderZalm years, when she was a 23 year old single mother of a two month old boy. She was later elected to the British Columbia legislature in 1991 as a Liberal for the interior riding of Okanagan East. She was 26 years old, the youngest MLA elected, and the first Indo-Canadian female. She was five months pregnant and the following spring was the first MLA in BC to give birth while holding office. She had previously served as campaign manager and organizer of several successful campaigns for other candidates.
At election, she was appointed to three critic portfolios: Environment, Agriculture, and Women's Equality. In the fall of 1992 she was appointed House Leader for the Official Opposition.
After a controversy in which her romantic relationship with then-Liberal leader Gordon Wilson became public – Tyabji and Wilson were both married to other people at the time – and Wilson's loss in a subsequent Liberal leadership election, she and Wilson left the provincial Liberal Party in 1993 to found the Progressive Democratic Alliance. Tyabji was defeated in her bid for re-election in 1996. She was defeated in 1996 in her bid for re-election by a former Social Credit member and her former brother-in-law John Weisbeck. Wilson and Tyabji were married in 1994.
She would later serve as a municipal councillor and regional district director in Powell River.
Tyabji has also hosted a weekday talk show on Victoria television station CHEK and a live radio program in Kelowna.
Tyabji is currently CEO of a software company in British Columbia.