Kathleen Wynne

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kathleen Wynne is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is currently a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the riding of Don Valley West for the Liberal Party.

Wynne holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University, a Master of Arts degree in linguistics from the University of Toronto (1980) and a Master of Education degree in adult education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. She has also completed a Harvard University course in conflict mediation, which was the culmination of five years of training in mediatiion and conflict resolution. She was a member of the discipline committee of the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists from 1997 to 2000.

Prior to her election to the Legislature, Wynne served as president of the Toronto Institute of Human Relations. In 1996, she helped found Citizens for Local Democracy, which opposed the efforts of Ontario's Progressive Conservative government to amalgamate the City of Toronto. She also founded the Metro Parent Network (now the Toronto Parent Network) which supports improvements in the province's public education system, and has participated in numerous other community endeavours. Wynne helped found MAD for Dancing, a community fundraising group that has donated over $50,000 to organizations that support gay and lesbian youth.

In 2000, Wynne was elected as a Public School Trustee in Toronto's eighth ward, despite being targeted by anonymous hate literature describing her as an extremist lesbian. She strongly opposed cuts to public education mandated by the Conservative government. In 2001, she helped pass a measure encouraging public schools to purchase teaching materials reflecting the presence of gay and lesbian parents in modern society.

Wynne was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 2003 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative cabinet minister David Turnbull by over 5000 votes. The Liberals won the election, and Wynne was appointed parliamentary assistant to Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Mary-Anne Chambers in October 2003. In October 2004, she was appointed parliamentary assistant to Minister of Education Gerard Kennedy.

On September 18, 2006, she was promoted to Ontario Minister of Education in a cabinet shuffle occasioned by the resignation of Joe Cordiano from the Legislature. She is the province's first openly lesbian cabinet minister, and only the second openly LGBT cabinet minister after cabinet colleague George Smitherman.

She is the mother of three young adults. She and her partner Jane have been residents of Toronto for over 25 years.