Lorraine Michael

Lorraine Michael MHA, M.Div., B.A.
Leader of the Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party
Incumbent
Assumed office May 28, 2006
Preceded by	Jack Harris
MHA for Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi
Incumbent
Assumed office November 1, 2006
Preceded by	Jack Harris
Personal details
Born	March 27, 1943 ( 1943-03-27)
Political party	New Democratic Party
Residence	St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Occupation	Roman Catholic Nun, Teacher, School Administrator, Social Activist

Lorraine Michael, MHA (born March 27, 1943) is a social democratic Canadian politician from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Since 2006 Michael has been the leader of the Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party (NDP). She is a former nun, teacher, and social activist. On November 1, 2006, she was elected Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for the district of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi, and re-elected the following year in the provincial election.

Biography

Michael was born on March 27, 1943 to a Lebanese-Canadian family in St. John's, Newfoundland. She has completed degrees at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Toronto. She started her career as a high school teacher on Bell Island, and was a junior high school principal and teacher in Baie Verte, the Codroy Valley, on the Burin Peninsula, and in St. John's.

Michael has been a social activist and a feminist activist in Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as internationally. After leaving the teaching profession, she became Director of the Office of Social Action in St. John's where she worked on a number of coalitions for social justice, both regionally and nationally. In later years, while working with the Toronto-based Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice (ECEJ), she spoke on the subject of economic globalization in Mexico, Chile, and Zimbabwe. She has also worked with the Women and Work Committee of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and served for a period as the organization's Interim Executive Director.

Prior to her election as NDP leader, she was Executive Director of the Women in Resource Development Committee, consulting with industry, labour, government, and educators to achieve employment equity in natural resource development sectors in Newfoundland and Labrador. This work was an extension of her earlier work in Labrador as the Innu Nation nominee on the Voisey's Bay environmental assessment panel from 1997 to 1999.

Leadership and politics

See also: New Democratic Party of Newfoundland and Labrador leadership election, 2006

Elections

Michael was elected as leader of the New Democratic Party of Newfoundland and Labrador on May 28, 2006 at the leadership convention to replace Jack Harris. On November 1, 2006 she was elected in a by-election in the district of Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi defeating Progressive Conservative candidate Jerome Kennedy. Her campaign also received support from federal NDP leader, Jack Layton who visited the district to campaign for Michael.

In March 2007, New Democrat Randy Collins resigned as MHA for Labrador West after being named in the province's constituency allowance scandal. Michael was unsuccessful in holding the district for the NDP, losing to Progressive Conservative candidate Jim Baker. The party faced several mishaps during the campaign, notably the decision of their presumed candidate, Karen Oldford, to run for the Liberals and the decision by the president of the United Steelworkers union local at Wabush Mines to endorse the Labrador Party instead of the NDP.

Michael led the party into the 2007 election. While the party fielded 36 candidates out of a possible 48 the party spent most of the time campaigning in the St. John's metropolitan area, due to a lack of funds. The party did travel to Burin-Placentia West, and later to central Newfoundland and western Labrador. Michael defeated her Progressive Conservative opponent Maria Afonso by a 17% margin but the party was unable to make any other gains throughout the province.

Efforts as leader

In March 2010, she called on government to immediately put a permanent air ambulance in western Labrador following a fatal incident. In which a 56-year-old man died while waiting for an air ambulance to arrive. In May 2010, she called for the House of Assembly to urge government to increase funding to help problem gamblers and establish a new plan for reduction leading to elimination of VLTs. She has also supported a ban on bottled water in government offices. In July 2010, she criticized the Williams Government's for carelessness after a mistake from the Department of Education resulted in approximately 6,500 high school students from across the province receiving the wrong marks, or no marks on their transcripts.

Public opinion

During the majority of time as leader, Michael and her party's support remained under 10 percent in the polls. Under her leadership the party's popularity was consistent with where they had been in public opinion over the past 20 years. After the 2011 federal election in which the New Democratic Party overtook the Liberals as the Official Opposition, support for Michael and the provincial NDP surged in a Corporate Research Associates (CRA) poll. On June 7, 2011, a poll showed that the party's support since March 2011, had risen from eight percent to 20 percent. This placed them in a statistical tie with the Liberal Party who were at 22 percent. Both parties however trailed the Progressive Conservatives (PC) who had the support of 57 percent. Michael's own popularity spiked, since the previous poll by CRA her popularity had risen from five percent to 14 percent. This placed her just behind Liberal leader Yvonne Jones who was at 16 percent, Premier Kathy Dunderdale had the support of 51 percent. By August 2011, Michael and her New Democratic Party had over taken the Liberal Party to place second behind the Progressive Conservatives. A CRA poll conducted throughout August showed that NDP support rose to 24%, while the Liberals remained at 20% and the PC Party fell slightly to 54%. While 50% thought Dunderdale was the best choice for premier, 17% of thought Michael was the best choice compared to 16% for new Liberal leader Kevin Aylward.

Electoral history

Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi - Newfoundland and Labrador general election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	NDP	Lorraine Michael	3,239	65.28%
	Progressive Conservative	John Noseworthy	1,550	31.24%
	Liberal	Drew Brown	173	3.49%

Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi - Newfoundland and Labrador general election, 2007
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democrat	Lorraine Michael	3062	56.8	+1.6
	Progressive Conservative	Maria Afonso	2135	39.6	-5.2
	Liberal	Maura Beam	196	3.6	+3.6

Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi, By-election - November 1, 2006 On the resignation of Jack Harris, May, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democrat	Lorraine Michael	1968	55.2	+6.7
	Progressive Conservative	Jerome Kennedy	1595	44.8	+1.0

External links

• New Democratic Party - NL NDP official bio
• Lorraine Michael on Facebook - Lorraine Michael on Facebook
• NDP by-election proves Liberals are useless: Williams