Shelley Wark-Martyn is a former politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 from Ontario, 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 was a New Democratic Party 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...

 from 1990 to 1995, and served as a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae

Bob Rae

Robert Keith "Bob" Rae, PC, OC, OOnt, QC, MP is a Canadian politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

.

Background

Wark-Martyn was a social worker and registered nurse before entering political life. She was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1990 provincial election

Ontario general election, 1990

The Ontario general election of 1990 was held on September 6, 1990, to elect members of the 35th Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario, Canada....

, defeating incumbent 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...

 Taras Kozyra

Taras Kozyra

Taras Kozyra is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1990....

 by 1,034 votes in the Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...

 riding of Port Arthur.

Provincial politics

The NDP won a majority government and Wark-Martyn was appointed as Rae's first Minister of Revenue

Ministry of Revenue (Ontario)

The Ministry of Revenue administers most of the province's major tax statutes as well as a number of tax credit, incentive and benefit programs. The tax revenues collected provide the fiscal foundation upon which many of the government's programs rely...

 on October 1, 1990. Her tenure in this office was largely uneventful. On February 3, 1993, she was demoted to the junior cabinet position of minister without portfolio

Minister without Portfolio

A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...

 responsible for education and training, assisting Education Minister Dave Cooke

Dave Cooke

Dave Cooke is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was an NDP member of the provincial legislature from 1977 to 1997, and was a senior cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.-Early career:...

. On June 17, 1993, she was reassigned as a minister without portfolio responsible for health, assisting Health Minister Ruth Grier

Ruth Grier

Ruth Anna Grier is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1995, and served as a high-profile cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae....

.

In early 1995, Wark-Martyn announced that Lakehead University

Lakehead University

Lakehead University is a public research university in Thunder Bay, and Orillia, Ontario, Canada.Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', or 'LU', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate and graduate programs and a medical school.The school has more than 45,000...

 and Confederation College

Confederation College

Confederation College is a provincially funded college of applied arts and technology located in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1967, and has area campuses in Dryden, Fort Frances, Geraldton, Kenora, Marathon, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake and Wawa. The college, with its area...

 would be receiving almost one million dollars in grants to develop programs and services to aboriginal people.

The NDP were defeated in the provincial election of 1995

Ontario general election, 1995

The Ontario general election of 1995 was held on June 8, 1995, to elect members of the 36th Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario, Canada...

, and Wark-Martyn lost her seat to Liberal Michael Gravelle

Michael Gravelle

Michael Gravelle is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He is the Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, and also a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the northern riding of Thunder Bay—Superior North for the Ontario Liberal Party.Gravelle was born in Port...

 by almost 7,000 votes.

Later life

In 1997 she was elected to the Thunder Bay municipal council in 1997. In 1999, she was appointed to the Capital Regional Health Board.

In 2004, Wark-Martyn began working in Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

 for Bayshore Home Health, a home-delivery health-care service. Before this, she had worked in sales marketing for The Pampered Chef.

External links