Judy Wasylycia-Leis

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Judy Wasylycia-Leis
Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North Centre (1997-2004) Winnipeg North (2004-present)
Incumbent
Assumed office  1997
Preceded by	Rey Pagtakhan
Born	August 10, 1951 (1951-08-10) (age 56) Kitchener, Ontario
Political party	New Democratic Party
Spouse	Ron Wasylycia-Leis
Children	Nick, Joe
Residence	Winnipeg
Profession	organizer, policy advisor
Religion	United Church of Canada

Klazina Judith Wasylycia-Leis (pronounced Wash-a-lees-a-lease) MP, MA (born August 10, 1951) is a Canadian politician. She was a Manitoba cabinet minister in the government of Howard Pawley from 1986 to 1988, and has been a member of the Canadian House of Commons since 1997.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Manitoba legislature 3 Federal politics 3.1 Finance Critic 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Early life

Wasylycia-Leis was born in Kitchener, Ontario, and was educated at the University of Waterloo and Carleton University (receiving a Master of Arts degree in political science from the latter institution in 1976). She worked as a policy planning consultant for the social democratic New Democratic Party following her graduation, and served as an executive assistant to party leader Ed Broadbent. She also served as Women's Organizer for the federal NDP during this period.

Wasylycia-Leis ran for office three times while living in Ontario, though she was not elected on any of these occasions. In 1977, she ran for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the provincial NDP in the riding of Carleton, and received 6837 votes for a third-place finish. She ran for the seat again in a 1980 by-election and the 1981 general election, and again placed third on each occasion.

[edit] Manitoba legislature

Wasylycia-Leis moved to Manitoba during the 1980s, where she worked as an executive assistant to Premier Howard Pawley and coordinated the Women's Directorate in the Manitoba government. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for the Manitoba NDP in the 1986 provincial election. She was elected in the north-end Winnipeg riding of St. Johns (generally a safe seat for the party), defeating Progressive Conservative John Baluta by almost two thousand votes.

On April 17, 1986, Wasylycia-Leis was appointed to the Manitoba cabinet as Minister of Culture, Heritage and Recreation with responsibility for the Status of Women and the Manitoba Lotteries Foundation Act. She was relieved of the Status of Women responsibility on September 21, 1987, but retained the other two positions until the Pawley government was defeated in the 1988 provincial election.

Wasylycia-Leis was re-elected in 1988, although by a narrower margin; she defeated Liberal Ruth Oberman, 3,092 votes to 2,480. In the 1990 provincial election, she was re-elected again by a wider margin.

[edit] Federal politics

Wasylycia-Leis resigned her seat on August 12, 1993, to seek (and win) the federal NDP nomination in the riding of Winnipeg North. The NDP fared poorly in the 1993 election, however, and Wasylycia-Leis lost to Liberal Rey Pagtakhan by almost 10,000 votes. She subsequently became a co-chair of Cho!ces, a Manitoba social-justice coalition. In the federal election of 1997, Wasylycia-Leis ran in the riding of Winnipeg North Centre, and defeated Liberal Judith Optiz Silver, 13,663 votes to 7,801. She was re-elected by a wider margin in the 2000 election. In 2003, she supported Bill Blaikie's campaign to become leader of the federal NDP. Redistribution placed Wasylycia-Leis against Pagtakhan again for the federal election of 2004, in the altered riding of Winnipeg North. On this occasion, Wasylycia-Leis defeated Pagtakhan 12,507 votes to 9,491.

In Parliament, Wasylycia-Leis has focused primarily on issues relating to women (including women's health concerns) and general human rights. She has served as her party's health critic, and was made critic for women's and senior's issues in 2001. She is also an advocate for Israel, and in recent years has been critical of some of her party's foreign policy positions as regards Israel and the Middle East.

Wasylycia-Leis was named Deputy Caucus Chair of the parliamentary NDP on January 30, 2003. On August 2, 2004, she was promoted to Caucus Chair. In 2003 Wasylycia-Leis was also named the Finance Critic and is the spokesperson for Finance and Financial Institutions issues for the NDP[1]. In November 2004, Wasylycia-Leis traveled to Ukraine to monitor developments in that country's disputed Presidential election.

[edit] Finance Critic

She became the centre of a national controversy during the 2006 election campaign. She had contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) requesting an investigation into whether or not Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale had illegally leaked information regarding a government announcement on income trusts, so as to benefit certain insiders [2]. Following her request, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli wrote to Wasylycia-Leis to inform her that the RCMP had commenced a criminal probe into the matter. The letter was delivered to her offices, which were closed for the holidays. When she did not respond to the letter, Zachardelli called her personally to ask whether or not she had read his letter. Wasylycia-Leis then proceeded to call a press conference to announce that the Liberals were the subject of an RCMP investigation. The effects of this announcement were an almost immediate drop in Liberal popularity and surge in Conservative momentum, as indicated by public-opinion polls. The letter from Zachardelli to Wasylycia-Leis remains controversial, as it went against standard RCMP policy by publicly announcing that a criminal investigation is being conducted. The controversy is deepened by the timing of the announcement to coincide with a federal election campaign. ^[1] On February 15, 2007 the RCMP announced the conclusion of the income trust investigation and laid a charge of 'Breach of Trust' against Serge Nadeau, an official in the Department of Finance [3]. Ralph Goodale was cleared of any wrongdoing [4]. Nevertheless, Wasylycia-Leis called for an apology from Goodale [5].

Wasylycia-Leis also played a central role in the debate surrounding the introduction of additional tax on Income Trusts in the 'Tax Fairness Plan' introduced by Conservative Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on October 31, 2006. During the subsequent Finance Committee hearings examining the taxation scheme the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors launched a series of ads critical of the New Democratic Party and Wasylycia-Leis in particular [6] [7].

Paul Szabo, a Liberal MP for Mississauga South disputed Wasylycia-Leis's credibility on May 10, 2007 in the House of Commons. Wasylycia-Leis charged that the Liberals were unduly influenced by the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors (CAITI) who, she asserted, had donated $282,000 since 1993 to the Liberals and $53,700 to Liberal leadership contenders in 2006. Szabo pointed out that the CAITI did not exist until January 2007, after the Liberal Leadership Convention and continued "The member has immunity in the House. She can say whatever she wants, whether truthful or not, but she cannot say those things, I believe, outside the House. Will she go outside the House and say the same things to the media and expose herself to the consequences of misleading of the House of Commons?"

During the same Parliamentary session Szabo read the following email into the record written by CAITI to Wasylycia-Leis: "You need to publish a[n] immediate retraction of your false statements and assertions made in today's House of Commons today about our association funding the Liberal Party. CAITI did not come into existence until January 11, 2007. Please provide evidence to support you[r] statement that we have funded the Liberal Party to the tune of some $280,000. We have provided no funding to any political party directly or indirectly' Never have, Never will. Please advise immediately. In the absence of an immediate response, CAITI will pursue legal recourse." To date, Wasylycia-Leis has refrained from repeating her remarks outside the House of Commons where her Parliamentary immunity does not apply^[2].

On September 27, 2007 Jack Layton replaced Wasylycia-Leis with Thomas Mulcair as the NDP Finance Critic.[8]

Wasylycia-Leis is now the Caucus Chair and her critic portfolios include Health, and Persons with Disabilities.[9]

[edit] External links

• Parliament Webpage

Assembly seats
Preceded by Don Malinowski	Member of the Legislative Assembly for St. Johns 1986-1993	Succeeded by Gord Mackintosh
Parliament of Canada
Preceded by The electoral district had its name changed from Winnipeg North in 1997.	Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North Centre 1997-2004	Succeeded by The electoral district was abolished in 2003.
Preceded by The electoral district was created in 2003.	Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North 2004-	Succeeded by Incumbent

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME	Wasylycia-Leis, Judy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH	August 10, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH