Bev Oda

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Hon. Beverley Joan Oda

Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women
Incumbent
Riding	Durham
In office since	2004
Preceded by	Alex Shepherd
Born	July 27, 1944 (age 62) Thunder Bay, Ontario
Political party	Conservative
Profession(s)	Broadcasting executive, communication consultant, teacher

Beverley Joan Oda PC, BA, MP (born July 27, 1944 in Thunder Bay, Ontario) is a Canadian politician. She is a current member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Durham for the Conservative Party of Canada. She was appointed Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women on February 6, 2006.

Oda has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto. She began her broadcasting career at TV Ontario in 1973, and later worked for Citytv and the Global Television Network. Oda was an Ontario Film Review Board Member in 1986-87, and a CRTC Commissioner from 1987 to 1993. She became the Chair of FUND (now The Harold Greenberg Fund) in 1994. From 1995 to 1999, she was a Senior Vice-President of CTV and Baton Broadcasting. She was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame in November 2003, and was awarded The Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of work in broadcasting. She has also worked as a policy advisor to three Secretaries of State.

Oda was for many years a volunteer with the Progressive Conservative Party. She ran as a Conservative in Clarington—Scugog—Uxbridge in the 2004 federal election, and won a narrow victory over Liberal Tim Lang.

Following her election, Oda was named as the Conservative Party critic for the Ministry of Heritage. She has recently argued in favour of allowing more Canadian and foreign programming options in the country.

On November 15, 2004, she reintroduced Bill C-333, the Chinese Canadian Recognition and Redress Act, which calls on parliament to recognize the contribution of Chinese immigrants to Canada, and acknowledge the unjust past treatments of Chinese Canadians as a result of racist legislation. Oda is not herself Chinese, but is Canada's first parliamentarian of Japanese heritage.

In 2006, she successfully defended her seat in Durham with 47% of the vote in the riding, despite controversy over campaign funding by US copyright proponents. [1] On February 6, 2006, Oda was sworn in as Heritage Minister in the cabinet of the newly elected Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She is the first Japanese-Canadian cabinet minister in Canadian history.

[edit] References

• Geist, Michael. The Sad Reality of Copyright Policy in Canada. Retrieved on 2006-02-07.

28th Ministry - Government of Stephen Harper
Cabinet Post
Predecessor	Office	Successor
Liza Frulla	Minister of Canadian Heritage (from 6-Feb-2006)	Incumbent
Special Cabinet Responsibilities
Predecessor	Title	Successor
Liza Frulla	Minister responsible for the Status of Women (from 6-Feb-2006)	Incumbent

Preceded by Alex Shepherd, Liberal

Member of Parliament for Durham 2004–present

Succeeded by incumbent

Members of the current Canadian Cabinet
Ambrose | Baird | Bernier | Blackburn | Cannon | Clement | Day | Emerson | Finley | Flaherty | Fortier | Harper | Hearn | LeBreton | Lunn | MacKay | Nicholson | O'Connor | Oda | Prentice | Skelton | Solberg | Strahl | Thompson | Toews | Van Loan | Verner Secretaries of State Guergis | Hill | Kenney | Paradis | Ritz