Sindi Hawkins

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Sindi Hawkins is the British Columbia Liberal Party MLA for Kelowna-Mission. She is the Deputy Speaker of the B.C. legislature.

Hawkins was first elected in 1996 and has been re-elected in 2001 and 2005. She served as Minister of Health Planning and as Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations.

As Minister of Health Planning, she was responsible for a long-term strategy to train more doctors and nurses in British Columbia. As a result of this planning, B.C. has added medical school campuses at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, the University of Victoria, and at UBC-Okanagan in Kelowna. The B.C. Liberal government has also expanded the number of nurses being trained around the province.

Before being elected to provincial office, Hawkins was a registered nurse in general duty, intensive care, management, education and consulting. She also has a post-graduate certificate in neuroscience nursing from the Montreal Neurological Hospital. She was recognized as one of the first nurses in Canada to be certified in neuroscience nursing by the Canadian Nurses Association. Hawkins then earned a law degree from the University of Calgary and set up her own company as a lawyer with an interest in medical-legal issues.

In 2004, Hawkins was diagnosed with leukemia and waged a high-profile battle with the illness. She was saved as a result of a bone marrow transplant from her sister. Hawkins has since campaigned for cancer research and bone marrow donation awareness.[1]