Donna Cansfield

Donna Cansfield
MPP for Etobicoke Centre
Incumbent
Assumed office October 2, 2003
Preceded by	Chris Stockwell
Minister of Natural Resources
In office October 30, 2007 – January 18, 2010
Preceded by	David Ramsay
Succeeded by	Linda Jeffrey
Personal details
Born	1945 (age 66–67) Alberta
Political party	Ontario Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Bill Cansfield
Children	2
Residence	Toronto, Ontario

Donna H. Cansfield, (born c.1945) is a politician in Ontario, Canada, who has represented the riding of Etobicoke Centre in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario since 2003. Cansfield is a member of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Before entering provincial politics, she was a school trustee, and served as trustee of the former Etobicoke Board of Education and Chair of the Toronto District School Board. She has also served as the Vice-Chair of the Toronto Foundation for Student Success, and as a Director of Beatrice House, a homeless shelter. Cansfield was first elected to the Etobicoke board in 1988, and became a Chair of the TDSB in 2002. In the 2000 trustee's election, she successfully fought off a challenge from Ihsam El-Sayed, who was part of a group that opposed Cansfield's endorsement of the school board's gay-inclusive policies.

Cansfield's political identity has been the source of some controversy in recent years. Until recently, she was a member of the now-defunct Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Notwithstanding her commitment to social liberalism, she was generally regarded as being on the conservative wing of the Etobicoke Board of Education. She was also regarded by some as supportive of Paul Christie, who was appointed by the provincial government of Ernie Eves to oversee and reduce expenditures in the Toronto District School Board. Shelley Carroll, who led the faction of left-leaning trustees opposed to Christie, waged a successful campaign to oust Canfield as chair of the TDSB. Carroll then replaced Cansfield as TDSB chair.

Notwithstanding this, her involvement in the education community led her to oppose the policies of the Mike Harris and Ernie Eves governments, and to run for the Ontario Liberal Party in the provincial election of 2003. She was initially seen as a long-shot candidate against high-profile Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Chris Stockwell. Following Stockwell's retirement amid scandal in mid-2003, however, she emerged as the frontrunner and eventually defeated replacement PC candidate Rose Andrachuk by about 4500 votes. She was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to Energy Minister Dwight Duncan on October 23, 2003.

Cansfield was appointed as Minister of Energy on October 11, 2005, when the former minister Dwight Duncan was named as Minister of Finance. She was reassigned as Minister of Transportation on May 23, 2006, when Duncan returned to Energy. After the 2007 election, Cansfield became Ontario's Minister of Natural Resources, where she served until January 18, 2010. Premier McGuinty appointed Cansfield as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (Housing) after the January 2010 cabinet shuffle.

Electoral record

Ontario general election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Donna Cansfield	21,856	51.4	+1.3
	Progressive Conservative	Mary Anne De Monte-Whelan	13,952	32.8	-1.3
	New Democrat	Ana Maria Rivero	5,099	12.0	+3.61
	Green	Cheryll San Juan	836	2.0	-6.39
	Libertarian	Alexander Bussman	422	1.0	-
	Family Coalition	Liz Millican	232	0.5	-
	Freedom	Marco Renda	108	0.3	-
Total valid votes			42,505	100.00

Ontario general election, 2007
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Donna Cansfield	22,886	50.18	+0.77
	Progressive Conservative	Andrew Pringle	15,565	34.13	-5.30
	New Democrat	Anita Agrawal	3,828	8.39	+0.78
	Green	Greg King	3,330	7.30	+3.75
Total valid votes			45,609	100.00

Ontario general election, 2003
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Donna Cansfield	22,070	49.41	+9.04
	Progressive Conservative	Rose Andrachuk	17,610	39.43	-14.69
	New Democrat	Margaret Anne Mchugh	3,400	7.61	+4.83
	Green	Ralph M. Chapman	1,584	3.55	+2.75
Total valid votes			44,664	100.00

External links

• Donna Cansfield's official MPP site
• Ontario Legislative Assembly Parliamentarian History

Provincial Government of Dalton McGuinty
Cabinet Posts (3)
Predecessor	Office	Successor
David Ramsay	Minister of Natural Resources 2007-2010	Linda Jeffrey
Harinder Takhar	Minister of Transportation 2006-2007	Jim Bradley
Dwight Duncan	Minister of Energy 2005-2006	Dwight Duncan
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Preceded by Chris Stockwell	Member of Provincial Parliament for Etobicoke Centre 2003-Present	Succeeded by Incumbent