New Democratic Party candidates, 2004 Canadian federal election

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The New Democratic Party ran a full slate of candidates in the 2004 federal election, and elected nineteen members to become the fourth largest party in the legislature. Many of the party's candidate have their own biography pages; information about others may be found here.

Contents 1 Alberta 1.1 Daria Fox (Calgary Southwest) 1.2 Jeff Sloychuk (Red Deer South) 2 Manitoba 2.1 Mike G. Abbey (Brandon—Souris) 2.2 Peter Carney (Charleswood—St. James) 2.3 Daren Van Den Bussche (Portage—Lisgar) 2.4 Sarah Zaharia (Provencher) 2.5 Duane Nicol (Selkirk—Interlake) 2.6 Catherine Green (Winnipeg South) 3 Newfoundland and Labrador 3.1 Steve Willcott (St. John's South—Mount Pearl) 4 Ontario 4.1 Kathy Pounder (Brampton—Springdale) 4.2 Chris Moise (Brampton West) 4.3 Max Silverman (Eglinton—Lawrence) 4.4 Cesar Martello (Etobicoke North) 4.5 Ross Sutherland (Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington) 4.6 Ted Mouradian (St. Catharines) 4.7 Dan Harris (Scarborough Southwest) 4.8 Colin Mackinnon (Simcoe—Grey) 4.9 Elaine MacDonald (Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry) 4.10 Maret Sadem-Thompson (Whitby—Oshawa) 4.11 Rick Morelli (Willowdale) 5 Prince Edward Island 5.1 Dave MacKinnon (Cardigan) 6 Quebec 6.1 Rebecca Blaikie (LaSalle-Émard) 6.2 Pierre Laliberté (Hull-Aylmer) 7 Saskatchewan 7.1 Priscilla Settee (Saskatoon—Wanuskewin) 8 Footnotes

[edit] Alberta

[edit] Daria Fox (Calgary Southwest)

Fox was twenty-four years old at the time of the election, and worked as an exam centre administrator (Calgary Herald, 27 June 2004). Her campaign emphasized youth issues, and she sought to improve youth turnout at the polls (Toronto Star, 18 June 2004). She received 2,884 votes (5.59%), finishing fourth against Conservative leader Stephen Harper.

Fox is also a PEZ collector, and organized the first Canadian Pez convention in 2002 with Jeff Fox (Vancouver Sun, 2 November 2004).

[edit] Jeff Sloychuk (Red Deer South)

Sloychuk was born in Red Deer, Alberta and began a political science degree at Red Deer College, before leaving to pursue communications work for the NDP in Edmonton, Alberta.

Before pursuing his degree, he worked as a photo-journalist for the Alaska Highway News and as a salesman with a Red Deer-based business.

[edit] Manitoba

[edit] Mike G. Abbey (Brandon—Souris)

Mike G. Abbey (born May 25, 1960) is a government employee and politician in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. In the federal election of 2004, he was a candidate of the New Democratic Party in the southwestern Manitoba riding of Brandon—Souris.

Abbey has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandon University, majoring in history, and minoring in administrative studies. He also has diploma in business administration from Assiniboine Community College. He has worked for the province of Manitoba since 1986. He works in the Department of Education and Training.

Abbey is Past President of the Brandon Youth Soccer Association and a member of the Manitoba Heritage Grants Advisory Council. He is Past Chairperson of the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation.

Abbey is a father of two children and also co-owns a small business along with his wife.

Abbey is a longtime supporter of the NDP, and has held numerous position on the provincial NDP riding association in Brandon East (which has continuously elected New Democrats to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba since 1969). His own campaign, however, was not successful. The federal NDP does not have a strong base in the region; he received 6,740 votes, or about 19% of the total cast.

He ran for mayor of Brandon, Manitoba in the Manitoba municipal elections, 2006 and finished in second place.

[edit] Peter Carney (Charleswood—St. James)

Carney was born in Dunrea, but has lived in Winnipeg since 1962. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba in 1966, a Bachelor of Education degree in 1968, and a Master of Education degree in 1979. He returned to academia in the 1990s via continuing education, and received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Winnipeg in 1998.

Carney worked as a teacher and school principal in the St. James-Assiniboia school district from 1966 to 1997, and was a board member of CancerCare Manitoba from 1986 to 1988. He was appointed to the University of Winnipeg Board of Regents in December 2002 (Winnipeg Free Press, 10 December 2002).

Carney has been a New Democratic Party supporter since 1970, and an active member since 1993.[1] He chaired MaryAnn Mihychuk's campaign in the 1995 provincial election, and was himself a candidate in the 1997 federal election. He campaigned in St. Boniface, and finished second against Liberal Ron Duhamel.

He was narrowly defeated for a school trustee position on the St. James—Assiniboia board in 1998, finishing fourth in a three-member division (Winnipeg Free Press, 29 October 1998). One of the elected members subsequently died, and Carney won a close by-election in February 1999 to succeed him (Winnipeg Free Press, 8 February 1999). He was re-elected in 2002.

Electoral record

Election	Division	Party	Votes	%	Place	Winner
1997 federal	St. Boniface	New Democratic Party	6,663		2/5	Ronald J. Duhamel, Liberal
2004 federal	Charleswood—St. James	New Democratic Party	4,283	10.15	3/6	Steven Fletcher, Conservative

[edit] Daren Van Den Bussche (Portage—Lisgar)

Van Den Bussche received 3,251 votes (9.34%), finishing third against Conservative incumbent Brian Pallister. See his entry here for more information.

[edit] Sarah Zaharia (Provencher)

Zaharia was a twenty-year-old student at the University of Winnipeg during the election. In addition to campaigning in Provencher, she also managed the campaign of Mathieu Allard in St. Boniface, where she resided (Winnipeg Free Press, 26 May 2004). The NDP did not target Provencher as winnable, and Zaharia acknowledged that she was running partly for the campaign experience. She was unable to do much campaigning in the riding (WFP, 8 June 2004).

Zaharia received 3,244 votes (9.01%), finishing third against Conservative incumbent Vic Toews.

[edit] Duane Nicol (Selkirk—Interlake)

Nicol (born May 26, 1978) is a young politician in Manitoba. He has campaigned for the Canadian House of Commons on two occasions and is now a city councillor in Selkirk, where he was born and raised.

Nicol initially enrolled for an Engineering program at the University of Manitoba, but changed his major to Political Science after a year and received an honours degree in 2003. He campaigned for the New Democratic party in Winnipeg South in the 2000 federal election, and received 4,224 votes (10.04%) for a third-place finish against Liberal incumbent Reg Alcock. He was chair of the University of Manitoba Student Union during the election (Winnipeg Free Press, 21 November 2000).

He was appointed to the Interlake Regional Health Authority in 2001 by provincial Health Minister Dave Chomiak, and served as chair of the planning committee. He was later elected to Selkirk's city council in the 2002 municipal election, finishing fifth in the town's single "at-large" district (the top six candidates were declared elected). Nicol is the youngest councillor ever elected in the city.

He worked for provincial New Democrats Peter Bjornson and Greg Dewar in the 2003 Manitoba provincial election, and also assisted Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Marilyn Churley in the Ontario election the same year.[2] Nicol voted against the New Policy Initiative proposal for the NDP in 2001,[3] and endorsed Bill Blaikie for NDP leader in 2002-03.[4] He won the NDP nomination in 2004 over Chris Pawley, the son of former Premier of Manitoba Howard Pawley (National Post, 8 May 2004), and received 10,516 votes (26.5%) in the general election for a second-place finish against James Bezan of the Conservative Party.

Nicol has written several essays on Canada's political system, including one piece from 2003 entitled "Turning Politics on its Head". This work criticized the modern approach of "selling" politicians, and called for more community-based consultation (Winnipeg Free Press, 30 November 2003). During the 2004 election, he listed Tommy Douglas as his political hero.

Some biographical information in this sketch is taken from Nicol's website, available here.

[edit] Catherine Green (Winnipeg South)

Green was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Victoria, and a Master of Architecture from the University of Manitoba. Green has taught for the latter institution, and for the City of Winnipeg at the time of the 2004 election as a contract officer. She is a past president of the Solar Energy Society of Manitoba.[5]

She received 4,217 votes (11.23%), finishing third against Liberal cabinet minister Reg Alcock.

[edit] Newfoundland and Labrador

[edit] Steve Willcott (St. John's South—Mount Pearl)

On July 28, 2004, Steve Willcott ran for the Canadian House of Commons, representing the Green Party of Canada in St. John's South, but lost to Loyola Hearn of the Conservative Party of Canada. Willcott received 493 votes to Hearn's 13,330.

[edit] Ontario

[edit] Kathy Pounder (Brampton—Springdale)

Pounder was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, and was 53 years old in 2004. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Arts degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of British Columbia. She has worked as an urban planner for the Niagara Escarpment Commission and for municipal and regional governments. Pounder was previously a DaimlerChrysler production worker, and a member of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 1285. A member of the Brampton Health Coalition, she has emphasized public health services in her political career.[6]

She campaigned for the Ontario New Democratic Party in Brampton Centre in the 2003 provincial election, and finished third against Liberal Linda Jeffrey.

During the 2004 campaign, Pounder received an unexpected endorsement from members of the Brampton—Springdale Liberal riding association, which refused to endorse Prime Minister Paul Martin's selection of Ruby Dhalla as the party's candidate (Globe and Mail, 8 June 2004). This endorsement received national attention, but had little affect on the final result: Pounder finished third with 8,038 votes (19.79%), while Dhalla won the riding handily.

[edit] Chris Moise (Brampton West)

Moise has a degree in Law Enforcement from Seneca College (1992) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Western Ontario (1997). He has worked at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto as an addiction counsellor since 1993, and has volunteered with youth and homeless outreach programs in Toronto and Brampton. Moise has been a union member since 1994, affiliated with the USWA and the Brewery Workers Unions and currently with SEIU through his work as a counsellor at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

After working on Marion Boyd's successful re-election campaign in the 1995 provincial election, Moise ran as the Ontario New Democratic Party's candidate in Oak Ridges for the 1999 election. The NDP have only a minor presence in this Greater Toronto Area seat, and Moise finished third with 1,957 votes (3.86%). The winner was Frank Klees of the Progressive Conservative Party.

Moise ran for the Ontario NDP again in the 2003 provincial election, in the riding of Brampton West—Mississauga. He finished third with 5,103 votes (8.15%). The winner was Vic Dhillon of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Moise campaigned for the federal NDP in the 2004 federal election in the riding of Brampton West. He again finished third with 4,920 votes (10.49%), losing to Liberal Colleen Beaumier.

He sought the NDP nomination for Toronto Centre for the next federal election, but lost to Michael Shapcott.

[edit] Max Silverman (Eglinton—Lawrence)

Silverman was eighteen years old at the time of the election, and was the youngest candidate anywhere in Canada. At age sixteen, he founded the organization Toronto Jewish Youth against the Occupation, which was affiliated with the Coalition for a Just Peace in Israel and opposed Israel's occupation of Palestine. Silverman attended the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, and acknowledged that he was sometimes called a "self-hating Jew" for his efforts. He refused to change his views, arguing that peace in Israel would be impossible without a viable Palestian state. In 2002, he helped organize a Canadian tour for Matan Kaminer, a nineteen-year-old Israeli soldier who refused to serve in the occupied territories.^[1] He later transferred to Northern Secondary School, arguing that his situation at Hebrew Academy had become untenable, and saying that anyone who strayed from the "party line" of "Israel is always right" was "branded an anti-Semite and traitor".^[2]

Silverman was also active with environmentalist groups in Toronto, including the Toronto Transit Commission advocacy group "Rocket Riders".^[3] He wrote a tribute piece for well-known Toronto activist Tooker Gomberg in 2004, following Gomberg's suicide.^[4] He enrolled at McGill University after the election, and as of 2006 is the Vice-President External of the Students' Society of McGill University.^[5]

Silverman received 4,886 votes (10.38%), finishing third against Liberal incumbent Joe Volpe.

[edit] Cesar Martello (Etobicoke North)

Martello is a student at York University, and a member of the Canadian Federation of Students. He served briefly in the Senate of York University, attending only one meeting. He has also served as director of public relations for his student council.

Martello campaigned as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party in the 2003 provincial election, in the Greater Toronto Area constituency of Bramalea—Gore—Malton—Springdale. He finished third, with 4,931 votes (11.65%). The winner was Liberal candidate Kuldip Singh Kular.

In the 2004 federal election, Martello ran for the federal NDP in the Toronto riding of Etobicoke North. He again finished third with 3,761 votes (12.24%). He also ran in Bramalea—Gore—Malton in the 2006 election.

[edit] Ross Sutherland (Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington)

Sutherland holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University, and a Bachelor of Nursing degree from Ryerson University. He is a registered nurse, teaches nursing at Queen's, and works at the Hotel Dieu hospital in Kingston. Sutherland is active with the Ontario Nurses Association, and is the author of "Scanning for Profit", a critical survey of private MRI and CT clincs.

He is co-chair of the Kingston and Area Health Coalition, and has written for the Progressive Independent Community Press.[7] Sutherland was 51 years old in 2004.[8] Long active in the labour movement, he was an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union during the 1980s (Toronto Star, 17 January 1986).

Sutherland is the son of Ralph Sutherland, who was also an NDP candidate. He joined the Ottawa West New Democratic Youth in 1967, and campaigned for future provincial party leader Michael Cassidy in the 1967 Ontario election.[9] Sutherland was himself a candidate of the Ontario New Democratic Party for the 2003 election in Hastings—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, and finished third against Liberal incumbent Leona Dombrowsky.

He received 7,418 votes (13.12%) in 2004, finishing third against Conservative candidate Scott Reid. In 2005, Sutherland helped to organize clinics in Kingston and Belleville to allow poor individuals to receive extra food allowances.[10]

[edit] Ted Mouradian (St. Catharines)

Mouradian has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Brock University. He worked in the real estate business during the 1980s, but left in 1986 to become a professional speaker. He has delivered addresses with titles such as "Life's Too Short", "It's O.K. To Be Me", "Service With A Smile" and "Don't Be A Listless Lister". Many of his addresses are educational works about public speaking. Mouradian is past-president and an honorary life member of the Ontario Real Estate Association, and has chaired the mayor's committee on Community and Race Relations. He is a past director of the downtown YMCA and AIDS Niagara.[11]

He is nicknamed "the camel man" and has often described the camel as his favourite animal. He has said, "When all the other beasts of burden fall by the wayside and they don't finish the job, the camel's the only creature that starts the job and finishes; no matter how bad the weather is, how tough the terrain is, the camel is always reliable. That's the first thing we should be as human beings - reliable". (Toronto Star, 25 February 1992)

Mouradian is openly gay, and has long been involved in issues relating to Canada's LGBT community. In 1992, he registered a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission about homophobic remarks made by a Hamilton city councillor. (Hamilton Spectator, 25 November 1992). In 2000, he supported the supported a decision by the Canadian Supreme Court to recognize same-sex couples as common-law spouses (Globe and Mail, 18 March 2000). Mouradian later spoke out in favour of same-sex marriage, which was legalized in Canada in 2005.

He received 10,135 votes (19.26%), finishing third against Liberal incumbent Walt Lastewka.

In late 2005, Mouradian encouraged voters in St. Catharines to support Lastewka rather than NDP candidate Jeff Burch in the 2006 federal election. His argument is that the NDP has no chance of taking the riding, and that progressive voters should vote Liberal to keep a Conservative candidate from winning. Mouradian opposes the Conservative Party's policy of revisiting the issue of same-sex marriage (Canadian Press, 21 December 2005).

[edit] Dan Harris (Scarborough Southwest)

Dan Harris received 8,471 votes (22.31%), finishing third against Liberal incumbent Tom Wappel.

[edit] Colin Mackinnon (Simcoe—Grey)

Mackinnon was born in New Zealand, where he served as a city councillor.[12] He arrived in Canada in 1966, and moved to Wasaga Beach in 1989. He is a chartered accountant by profession.[13] Mackinnon received 5,532 votes (9.99%), finishing third against Conservative Helena Guergis.

[edit] Elaine MacDonald (Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry)

Elaine MacDonald is a high school teacher and community activist living in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. She taught at Saint Lawrence High School, which in 2002 became Saint Lawrence Intermediate School. Many of her classes involved computers.

She was the New Democratic Party candidate in the Eastern Ontario riding of Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry for the 2004 and 2006 federal elections.

She is the mother of rock musician and writer Maggie MacDonald.

[edit] Maret Sadem-Thompson (Whitby—Oshawa)

Sadet-Thompson received 8,002 votes (14.05%), finishing third against Liberal incumbent Judi Longfield.

[edit] Rick Morelli (Willowdale)

Morelli was elected to the Metro Toronto Separate School Board in the 1988 municipal election, succeeding fellow New Democrat Anthony Perruzza in Ward Fifteen. A newspaper report from the period lists him as a twenty-two year old student at York University. His primary campaign issues were overcrowding and substance abuse in the school system.^[6] Campaigning for re-election in 1991, he called for equal funding between public and separate schools and sought to remove the education component from property taxes.^[7] He lost to the Rev. Giuseppe Sbrocchi. He later worked as an assistant to provincial cabinet minister Tony Silipo and Metro Toronto councillor Maria Augimeri.^[8]

Morelli received 3,671 votes in 2004, finishing third against Liberal candidate Susan Kadis.

[edit] Prince Edward Island

[edit] Dave MacKinnon (Cardigan)

Dave MacKinnon is a politician of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. On July 28, 2004, he ran for the Canadian House of Commons, representing the New Democratic Party in Cardigan, but lost to Lawrence MacAulay of the Liberal Party of Canada. MacKinnon received 2,103 votes to MacAulay's 11,064.

[edit] Quebec

[edit] Rebecca Blaikie (LaSalle-Émard)

Rebecca Blaikie (born 1 January 1978 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) was the candidate for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Prime Minister Paul Martin's electoral district of LaSalle-Émard in Montreal, Quebec. She received 4.97% of the vote share, and was not elected. She did however receive a large amount of press coverage.

She is the daughter of Bill Blaikie, a veteran NDP Member of Parliament from Winnipeg, and current Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

She has a degree in Canadian social history from the University of Winnipeg and currently works for the NDP in Quebec.

[edit] Pierre Laliberté (Hull-Aylmer)

Laliberté has been a teacher and member of the Quebec delegation at the University of Massachusetts, where he previously received a doctorate in economics. In 2001 he started working as chief economist for the Canadian Labour Congress.

In this election he received 12,6% of the vote, finishing third and losing to Liberal incumbent Marcel Proulx.

[edit] Saskatchewan

[edit] Priscilla Settee (Saskatoon—Wanuskewin)

Settee was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and raised in the Cumberland House Cree Nation (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 21 February 2006). She has been a consultant for the Aboriginal Women's Council of Saskatchewan (Toronto Star, 13 May 1990), a member of the Indigenous Women's Network (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 29 January 1997) and co-ordinator of the Indigenous Peoples Program at the University of Saskatchewan (31 January 1997). In 2003, she participated in a one-week teaching session in Greenland (SSP, 14 November 2003).

In 1997, she organized a protest against plans to bury radioactive waste in the Canadian Shield region of northern Saskatchewan (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 13 January 1997). In the same year, she helped organize a protest against the relatively light prison terms given to two men convicted in the death of an aboriginal woman (31 January 1997).

Settee was chosen as the NDP's 2004 candidate for Saskatoon—Wanuskewin in an upset over former Saskatoon Mayor Jim Maddin and former MP John Edmund Parry (SSP, 29 March 2004). She was completing her PhD in Agriculture and Education at the same university at the time of the election.[14] She received 5,770 votes (17.81%), finishing third against Conservative incumbent Maurice Vellacott.

In 2005, Settee helped establish ties between the University of Saskatchewan and the University of San Marcos in Peru regarding strategies to improve university access and employment prospects for aboriginal students (SSP, 24 December 2005).

[edit] Footnotes