Barbara Sullivan (born January 24, 1943 in Calgary, is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1995.[1]
Sullivan was educated at the Carleton University School of Journalism, and worked as a journalist and later as a public affairs consultant while being engaged in community activities, including the Liberal Party of Canada and the Ontario Liberal Party. She managed several leadership campaigns in the party, including that of Dr. Stuart Smith,leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, and was the Ontario Campaign Manager for Jean Chretien, M.P., who became leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Prime Minister of Canada. Sullivan also managed the successful campaigns of Hon. Art Eggleton as Mayor of the City of Toronto. She served as Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant to the Treasurer of Ontario (Minister of Finance), Hon. Robert Nixon, from 1985 to 1987.
She was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1987 provincial election, defeating her Progressive Conservative opponent in Halton Centre by over 6,000 votes amid a landslide Liberal majority at the provincial level. Sullivan served in the government of Premier David Peterson as the government caucus chair, parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Labour from 1988 to 1989, and chair of the Select Committee on Energy in the Ontario legislature. She also represented the elected members of the governing Liberal Party on the legislature's Board of Internal Economy.
The Liberals were unexpectedly defeated by the New Democratic Party in the [[Ontario general election, 1990|. Sullivan retained her riding by 1,215 votes over a challenger from the Progressive Conservatives, and served as her party's Environment Critic and Health Critic from 1990 to 1995.
The riding was a prime target for the Progressive Conservatives in the provincial election of 1995. The Progressive Conservatives won a majority government in the election, and Sullivan lost her constituency to PC candidate Terence Young.
Sullivan attempted to return to the legislature in the Ontario general election, 2003 provincial election but lost to Progressive Conservative incumbent Ted Chudleigh in the newly redistributed riding of Halton.
Sullivan is immediate past Chair of Ontario's Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council, (2004–2010) which under her leadership recommended significant changes to the regulatory process and the regulation of health professions in the province that are now enacted in law.
She is also past chair of Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation, one of Canada's major teaching hospitals, and led the Board through a major capital expansion program and major quality improvement initiatives. She continues to serve as a member of the Quality Committee of the Board.
Sullivan is president of The Cheltenham Group, a public affairs and governance consultancy, and president of Cheltenham Inc., which provides financial services to estates and senior citizens. She is past chair of the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, past director of Bird Studies Canada and Oaklands Regional Centre for developmentally disabled adults, and currently serves as a member of the Bay Area Health Trust. She lives in Hamilton, Ontario.