Andrea Horwath
Encyclopedia
Andrea Horwath is a Canadian activist and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

. She is the Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party
Ontario New Democratic Party
The Ontario New Democratic Party or , formally known as New Democratic Party of Ontario, is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. It is a provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. It was formed in October 1961, a few months after the federal party. The ONDP had its...

 in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. She is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...

, representing the riding of Hamilton Centre
Hamilton Centre
Hamilton Centre is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004.It was created in 2003 from parts of Hamilton East, Hamilton West and Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Aldershot ridings....

, and was chosen as the party's leader at its 2009 leadership convention
Ontario New Democratic Party leadership election, 2009
The 2009 Ontario New Democratic Party leadership election was held in Hamilton, from March 6 to 8, 2009 to elect a successor to Howard Hampton as leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party . On June 15, 2008, Hampton informed the party's provincial council that he would not stand for re-election as...

.

She is the first woman to lead the Ontario New Democratic Party, and only the second woman, after Lyn McLeod
Lyn McLeod
Lyn McLeod is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 2003. McLeod was a cabinet minister in the Liberal government of David Peterson from 1987 to 1990, and served as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 1992 to 1996.-Background - Pre...

, to serve as leader of a political party with representation in the provincial legislature.

Early life, education, early career

Horwath was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

, and has a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in Labour Studies from McMaster University
McMaster University
McMaster University is a public research university whose main campus is located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land in the residential neighbourhood of Westdale, adjacent to Hamilton's Royal Botanical Gardens...

 in that city. She worked part-time as a waitress to pay her way through university. Her father Andrew had immigrated to Canada from Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

, and worked on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 plant in Oakville, Ontario
Oakville, Ontario
Oakville is a town in Halton Region, on Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. As of the 2006 census the population was 165,613.-History:In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road...

.

She worked closely with the Hamilton labour movement for several years, programming and providing literacy, numeracy and ESL training for workers. She subsequently got involved in the cooperative housing movement in Welland
Welland, Ontario
Welland is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada.The city has been traditionally known as the place where rails and water meet, referring to the railways from Buffalo to Toronto and Southwestern Ontario, and the waterways of Welland Canal and Welland River,...

, and later became a community development coordinator for Hamilton's McQuesten Legal & Community Services, providing public legal education to groups working with tenants, injured workers and people with disabilities.

In 1996 Horwath earned a certificate of achievement in anti-racism training, and was an organizer of Hamilton's Days of Action campaign against provincial government cutbacks announced by Mike Harris
Mike Harris
Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...

. That year she received the Woman of the Year Award in Public Affairs from the Hamilton Status of Women Committee, in recognition of her work in the community. She also dedicated her time and efforts toward the field of social housing, and was subsequently awarded the Graham Emslie Award for Community Development in Housing by the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association.

She lives in Hamilton with her son Julian (born November 1992). In a March 2011 interview with the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...

, she spoke publicly for the first time about the breakup of her longtime relationship with Julian's father, Hamilton businessman Ben Leonetti. Horwath had met Ben Leonetti in her university years, when she was working part-time as a waitress and he was a jazz musician. The two lived together for 25 years without getting married, and split up in 2010.

Early political career

In the Canadian federal election of 1997
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...

, she was the NDP candidate against incumbent Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 Stan Keyes
Stan Keyes
Stanley Kazmierczak Keyes, PC is a Canadian diplomat and former politician.Keyes was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988 election as the Liberal Party of Canada Member of Parliament for Hamilton West. He was subsequently reelected in 1993, 1997 and 2000 elections...

 in the riding of Hamilton West. Although unsuccessful, her second-place finish was a significant improvement on previous NDP efforts in the riding, and gave her an increased level of prominence in the city.

City councillor

Later in 1997, she was elected to Hamilton City Council for Ward Two, outpolling two incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...

s who had represented the area for more than 20 years. She emerged as a prominent voice for the political left in the city, and was re-elected to council in 2000 and 2003. During her three terms as city councillor, she chaired the solid waste management committee and the municipal non-profit housing corporation.

By-election victory

Horwath was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...

 in a 2004 by-election in the then-extant provincial riding
Electoral district (Canada)
An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...

 of Hamilton East
Hamilton East (provincial electoral district)
Hamilton East is a former provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada. It was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1894 to 2007, when it was redistributed between the new ridings of Hamilton Centre and Hamilton East—Stoney Creek...

, defeating Liberal
Ontario Liberal Party
The Ontario Liberal Party is a provincial political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. It has formed the Government of Ontario since the provincial election of 2003. The party is ideologically aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada but the two parties are organizationally independent and...

 candidate Ralph Agostino to succeed the deceased Liberal member Dominic Agostino
Dominic Agostino
Dominic Agostino was a Canadian politician who represented the riding of Hamilton East for the Liberal Party in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 until his death in 2004.-Biography:...

, Ralph's brother. Winning 63.6 per cent of the vote, up from the NDP's 29.4 per cent in that riding six months earlier, her landslide victory boosted the NDP's seat count over the threshold for official party status
Official party status
Official party status refers to the Canadian practice of recognizing political parties in the Parliament of Canada and the provincial legislatures. The type of recognition and threshold needed to obtain it varies...

 in the legislature, and helped give the federal New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

 a bounce in Hamilton that would continue into the federal election
Canadian federal election, 2004
The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...

 shortly thereafter.

2007 election

In the 2007 election
Ontario general election, 2007
The Ontario general election of 2007 was held on October 10, 2007 to elect members of the 39th Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, Canada. The Liberals under Dalton McGuinty won the election with a majority government, winning 71 out of a possible 107 seats with 42.2% of the popular...

, Horwath ran in the new riding of Hamilton Centre
Hamilton Centre
Hamilton Centre is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004.It was created in 2003 from parts of Hamilton East, Hamilton West and Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Aldershot ridings....

, due to redistricting
Redistricting
Redistricting is the process of drawing United States electoral district boundaries, often in response to population changes determined by the results of the decennial census. In 36 states, the state legislature has primary responsibility for creating a redistricting plan, in many cases subject to...

 that divided her former Hamilton East riding between Hamilton Centre and the new riding of Hamilton East—Stoney Creek
Hamilton East—Stoney Creek
Hamilton East—Stoney Creek is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004.The riding was formed in 2003 from parts of the former ridings of Hamilton East and Stoney Creek....

. Horwath's new Hamilton Centre riding included approximately half of her former riding as well as a portion of the former Hamilton West riding where she had run federally in 1997. It also included her entire former city council ward.

In the leadup to the campaign, Horwath was expected to face Hamilton West Liberal incumbent Judy Marsales
Judy Marsales
Judy Marsales is a businessperson and politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the former riding of Hamilton West as a member of the Ontario Liberal Party ....

. However, Marsales opted not to run for another term, and Horwath easily defeated Liberal candidate Steve Ruddick on election day.

2009 NDP leadership campaign

On November 7, 2008, Horwath officially launched her campaign to win the party's leadership. The leadership election
Ontario New Democratic Party leadership election, 2009
The 2009 Ontario New Democratic Party leadership election was held in Hamilton, from March 6 to 8, 2009 to elect a successor to Howard Hampton as leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party . On June 15, 2008, Hampton informed the party's provincial council that he would not stand for re-election as...

 was held March 6–8, 2009. Horwath led on the first two ballots, and won on the third ballot with 60.4% of the vote.

She is leading the party into the 2011 provincial election, scheduled for October 6. The party is riding a wave of support resulting from the federal NDP's strongest-ever showing in the 2011 federal election, where it earned more than 30 per cent of the vote for the first time.

Electoral record

|-

|Stan Keyes
Stan Keyes
Stanley Kazmierczak Keyes, PC is a Canadian diplomat and former politician.Keyes was first elected to the House of Commons in 1988 election as the Liberal Party of Canada Member of Parliament for Hamilton West. He was subsequently reelected in 1993, 1997 and 2000 elections...


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|Andrea Horwath
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|John Findlay
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|Ken Griffith
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|Brian Rickard
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|Wendell Fields
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|Andrea Horwath
|align="right"|15,185
|align="right"|63.6
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|Ralph Agostino
|align="right"|6,362
|align="right"|26.6
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|Tara Crugnale
|align="right"|1,772
|align="right"|7.4
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|Raymond Dartsch
|align="right"|448
|align="right"|1.9
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|John C. Turmel
John C. Turmel
John C. Turmel is a perennial candidate for election in Canada, and according to the Guinness Book of Records holds the records for the most elections contested and for the most elections lost having contested 75 elections and lost 74...


|align="right"|120
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|Andrea Horwath
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|Steve Ruddick
|align="right"|11,042
|align="right"|28.7
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|Chris Robertson
|align="right"|5,711
|align="right"|14.8
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|Peter Ormond
|align="right"|3,703
|align="right"|9.6
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|Lynne Scime
|align="right"|553
|align="right"|1.4
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|Communist
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...


|Bob Mann
Communist Party candidates, 2003 Ontario provincial election
The Communist Party of Canada - Ontario ran six candidates in the 2003 provincial election in Ontario, Canada. Relevant information about these candidates may be found on this page.-Howard Cukoff :...


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External links

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