Joy Smith

Joy Ann Smith
Joy Smith, September 23, 2009
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Kildonan—St. Paul
Incumbent
Assumed office June 28, 2004
Preceded by	First Member
MLA for Fort Garry
In office 1999–2003
Preceded by	Rosemary Vodrey
Succeeded by	Kerri Irvin-Ross
Personal details
Born	February 20, 1947 Deloraine, Manitoba
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Bart Smith
Residence	East St. Paul, Manitoba
Profession	Music teacher
Religion	Non-denominational Christian

Joy Ann Smith (born February 20, 1947) is a Canadian politician. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1999 and 2003, and was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 2004.

Education and business career

Smith was born in Deloraine, Manitoba. She holds a Master's Degree in Education from the University of Manitoba (majoring in Math and Science), and a music diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She worked as a teacher for twenty-one years before entering political life, and in 1986 received the Hedley Award for Excellence in Research. During the 1990s, she served as a liaison for private and home-schooling groups.

Smith is also an entrepreneur. She published a best selling book entitled Lies My Kid's Teacher Told Me in 1996, and a follow-up entitled, Tools of the Trade a few years later. She was also the owner of Gem Records for a time. In 1996, she was nominated for Manitoba's Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Career in provincial politics

Smith was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1999 provincial election, as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the south-central Winnipeg constituency of Fort Garry. Running under the banner of popular Premier Gary Filmon's PCs, she defeated New Democrat Lawrie Cherniack by thirty votes, in one of the closest constituency races of the campaign. The New Democratic Party won the election, and Smith served as the Progressive Conservative critic for education and justice.

Fort Garry was a top NDP target in the 2003 election, and Smith lost the constituency to New Democrat Kerri Irvin-Ross by eighty-seven votes.

Career in federal politics

In the 2004 federal election, Smith campaigned as a Conservative candidate in the north Winnipeg riding of Kildonan—St. Paul. She had previously been nominated as a candidate of the Canadian Alliance, where she was the Manitoba organizer for Stockwell Day's bid for leadership, before that party merged with the Progressive Conservatives in 2003-04.

Smith narrowly defeated Liberal candidate Terry Duguid, 13,582 votes to 13,304. Smith was named Manitoba caucus chair, giving her a seat on the Conservative Party's Planning and Priorities Committee.

In 2007, Smith introduced a private member's bill called the Clean Internet Act (Bill C-427), that in her words would "... prevent the use of the Internet to distribute child pornography, material that advocates, promotes or incites racial hatred, and material that portrays or promotes violence against women." Part of the bill proposes a "know your subscriber" requirement for ISPs and would mandate them to deny Internet access to offenders. Also, it proposes to give special searching powers to the Ministry of Industry. The above features have led it to be criticized as something that "... would not look out-of-place in countries that aggressively censor the Internet."

In 2006, Smith introduced a private member's bill, asking parliamentarians to condemn human trafficking and come up with a comprehensive plan to combat the problem.

In 2004, Smith was selected to be part of the Canadian delegation assigned to travel to Ukraine and observe a court-ordered repeat of the second round of voting the Ukraine presidential election

She is also a committee member on the Status of Women Group, Ukrainian-Canadian Parliamentary Group, Canada-Israel Parliamentary Group and Canada-USA Relations Parliamentary Group.

In 2002, as justice critic for the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, she spoke against a bill which provided adoption rights to same-sex couples in that province. Smith argued that her party did not oppose same-sex adoption rights as such, but that the proposed legislation was flawed. In a June 2005 parliamentary debate on same-sex marriage, she stated that, "If (her daughter) decides to get married, she will know that the meaning of marriage is the union of a man and a woman. If she chooses otherwise, it will be her choice." The result of the bill, she said, would be to "cause marriage to just go away with the stroke of a pen." She also claimed the bill was discriminatory against married couples. The Toronto Star reported that Smith broke down in tears during the debate.

Smith defeated Duguid again by a significantly larger plurality in the 2006 federal election, as the Conservatives won a national minority government. Smith along with the Conservative government were re-elected in the October 2008 federal election to another minority government.

Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Conservative	Joy Smith	19,751	53.40%	+10.27%	$64,584
	New Democratic	Ross Eadie	12,093	32.70%	+12.53%	$25,719
	Liberal	Lesley Hughes	3,009	8.14%	-25.33%
	Green	Kevan Bowkett	1,685	4.60%	+1.89%	$101
	Christian Heritage	Jordan Loewen	233	0.63%	–	$1,302
	Independent	Eduard Hiebert	214	0.58%	+0.06%	$3,872
Total valid votes/Expense limit			36,985	100.00%	$78,899
Total rejected ballots			156
Turnout			37,141

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Conservative	Joy Smith	17,524	43.13%	+5.83%	$58,321
	Liberal	Terry Duguid	13,597	33.47%	-3.06%	$70,764
	New Democratic	Evelyn Myskiw	8,193	20.17%	-2.35%	$16,314
	Green	Colleen Zobel	1,101	2.71%	+0.64%	$0.00
	Independent	Eduard Hiebert	213	0.52%	–	$3,521
Total valid votes			40,628	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			137
Turnout			40,765

Canadian federal election, 2004: Kildonan–St. Paul
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Joy Smith	13,582	37.30	$53,156
	Liberal	Terry Duguid	13,304	36.54	$64,174
	New Democratic Party	Lorene Mahoney	8,202	22.53	$32,688
	Green	Jacob Giesbrecht	756	2.08	$1,929
	Marijuana	Rebecca Whittaker	290	0.80	not listed
	Christian Heritage	Katharine Reimer	278	0.76	$1,475
Total valid votes/Expenditure limit			36,412	100.00	71,091
Total rejected ballots			117
Turnout			36,529	60.19
Electors on the lists			60,689
Percentage change figures are factored for redistribution. Conservative Party percentages are contrasted with the combined Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative percentages from 2000. Sources: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.

2003 Manitoba provincial election : Fort Garry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	+/-	Expenditures
	New Democratic Party	Kerri Irvin-Ross	3,852	46.75	+3.29	$21,049.74
	Progressive Conservative	(x)Joy Smith	3,765	45.69	+1.93	$29,935.35
	Liberal	Taran Malik	562	6.82	-4.45	$13,984.00
	Independent	Didz Zuzens	61	0.74	+0.74	$395.34
Total valid votes			8,240	99.34
Rejected and declined votes			55
Turnout			8,295	63.49	-11.60
Electors on the lists			13,066

1999 Manitoba provincial election : Fort Garry
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	+/-	Expenditures
	Progressive Conservative	(x)Joy Smith	4,436	43.76		$28,543.84
	New Democratic Party	Lawrie Cherniack	4,406	43.46		$29,325.00
	Liberal	Ted Gilson	1,143	11.27		$9,808.98
	Manitoba Party	Denise Van Rooyen	116	1.14		$1,032.59
Total valid votes			10,101	99.64
Rejected and declined votes			37
Turnout			10,138	75.09
Electors on the lists			13,502

External links

• Joy Smith - Parliament of Canada biography