Mitzie Hunter

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Mitzie Hunter
MPP
Mitzie Hunter MS.png
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament
for Scarborough—Guildwood
Assumed office
August 1, 2013
Preceded byMargarett Best
Deputy Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party
Assumed office
August 8, 2022
Personal details
Born (1971-09-14) September 14, 1971 (age 51)
Jamaica
Political partyLiberal
Residence(s)Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma materUniversity of Toronto at Scarborough, Rotman School of Management
OccupationPolitician

Mitzie Jacquelin Hunter[1] (born September 14, 1971) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who was first elected in a by-election on August 1, 2013 and later re-elected in the elections of 2014 and 2018. She represents the Toronto riding of Scarborough—Guildwood. She served as a member of cabinet in the government of Kathleen Wynne. She was a candidate for the 2020 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election, having placed fourth place with 5.7% of the ballot.[2]

Background[edit]

Hunter and her family immigrated to Canada from Jamaica in 1975. She grew up in Scarborough, graduated from the University of Toronto with a BA, and completed her MBA from the Rotman School of Management.[3]

She was CEO of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, and was previously CAO of Toronto Community Housing. She also served as Vice President at Goodwill Industries of Toronto.[4]

Politics[edit]

In 2013 she ran as the Liberal candidate in a by-election called to replace Margarett Best who resigned due to health reasons. She defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Ken Kirupa by 1,246 votes.[5] She faced Kirupa again in 2014 this time defeating him by 7,610 votes.[6]

In June 2014, she was appointed as an Associate Minister for the Ministry of Finance responsible for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.[7] On June 13, 2016, she was promoted to the senior position of Minister of Education.[8]

On January 17, 2018, it was announced that Ms. Hunter would leave her position as Minister of Education to replace outgoing Deb Matthews as the new Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development.[9]

On August 14, 2019, Hunter announced her candidacy for the 2020 Ontario Liberal Party leadership race. At the leadership convention on March 7, 2020, she finished fourth.[10] She was re-elected in the 2022 Ontario general election.

Hunter became deputy leader of the Ontario Liberals and was considered a possible candidate in the next Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. However, in March 2023, she said that she would be resigning her as an MPP to prepare to run in the 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election.[11]

Cabinet positions[edit]

Ontario provincial government of Kathleen Wynne
Cabinet posts (3)
Predecessor Office Successor
Deb Matthews Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development
2018 (January–June) 		Merrilee Fullerton
Liz Sandals Minister of Education
2016-2018 		Indira Naidoo-Harris
New position Associate Minister of Finance
2014-2016
Responsible for Ontario Retirement Pension Plan 		Indira Naidoo-Harris

Electoral record[edit]

2022 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Guildwood
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Mitzie Hunter 12,271 45.85 +12.51
Progressive Conservative Alicia Vianga 8,484 31.70 -1.44
New Democratic Veronica Javier 4,523 16.90 -10.72
Green Dean Boulding 745 2.78 +0.33
New Blue Opa Hope Day 351 1.31 +0.10
Ontario Party William Moore 248 0.93
People's Political Party Kevin Clarke 139 0.52
Total valid votes 26,761 100.0
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots
Turnout 37.98
Eligible voters 70,445
Liberal hold Swing +6.98
Source: Elections Ontario[12]
2018 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Guildwood
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Mitzie Hunter 11,972 33.34 -16.72
Progressive Conservative Roshan Nallaratnam 11,898 33.14 +5.42
New Democratic Tom Packwood 9,917 27.62 +10.7
Green Linda Rice 878 2.45 -0.49
Libertarian Hamid-Reza Dehnad-Tabatabaei 445 1.24 -0.12
Trillium George Marcos Garvida 419 1.17
Special Needs Wanda Ryan 159 0.44
The People Heather Dunbar 151 0.42
Independent Benjamin Mbaegbu 66 0.18
Total valid votes 35,905 100.0  
Liberal hold Swing -11.05
Source: Elections Ontario[13]
2014 Ontario general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Mitzie Hunter 17,498 50.06 +14.21
Progressive Conservative Ken Kirupa 9,688 27.72 -3.08
New Democratic Shuja Syed 5,915 16.92 -11.43
Green Jeffrey W. R. Bustard 1,029 2.94 +0.79
Libertarian Richard Kerr 476 1.36 +0.87
Freedom Khalid Mokhtarzada 228 0.65 +0.33
Canadians' Choice John Sawdon 120 0.34  
Total valid votes 34,954 100.0  
Liberal hold Swing +8.64
Source: Elections Ontario[14]


Ontario provincial by-election, August 1, 2013
Resignation of Margarett Best
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Mitzie Hunter 8,852 35.85 -13.09
Progressive Conservative Ken Kirupa 7,605 30.80 +2.15
New Democratic Adam Giambrone 7,000 28.35 +8.93
Green Nick Leeson 532 2.15 +0.86
Independent Jim Hamilton 195 0.79  
Special Needs Danish Ahmed 183 0.74  
Libertarian Heath Thomas 120 0.49 -0.79
Family Coalition Raphael Rosch 104 0.42  
Freedom Matthew Oliver 80 0.32 -0.10
The People Bill Rawdah 22 0.09  
Total valid votes 24,693 100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 180 0.72
Turnout 24,873 35.83
Eligible voters 69,425
Liberal hold Swing -7.62
Source: Elections Ontario[15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ @ONPARLeducation (13 July 2022). "Within the halls of the Legislature are walls that contain the names of every Member of Provincial Parliament elected to Ontario's Legislature since 1867. The names for the 42nd Parliament were recently added. For the first time a Member's name was inscribed in Oji-Cree syllabics" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ "Former cabinet minister Steven Del Duca elected new Ontario Liberal leader".
  3. ^ Rushowy, Kristin (July 23, 2016). "At-risk students, special ed priorities for new Education Minister Mitzie Hunter". Toronto Star.
  4. ^ "Ontario Liberals Announce Mitzie Hunter As Candidate For Scarborough-Guildwood". ontarioliberal.ca. June 13, 2017.
  5. ^ "Liberal Mitzie Hunter nabs Scarborough riding seat". CBC News. August 1, 2013.
  6. ^ "General Election by District: Scarborough-Guildwood". Elections Ontario. June 12, 2014. Archived from the original on June 17, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  7. ^ Richard Brennan; Robert Benzie; Rob Ferguson (June 24, 2014). "Kathleen Wynne warns financial cupboard is bare". Toronto Star.
  8. ^ "Kathleen Wynne's shuffled cabinet features 40% women". CBC News. June 13, 2016.
  9. ^ "Wynne shuffling cabinet to add new blood and replace retiring ministers". Toronto Star. January 17, 2018.
  10. ^ Gibson, Victoria (March 7, 2020). "Steven Del Duca named Ontario Liberal leader in first-ballot victory". iPolitics. Retrieved March 7, 2020.
  11. ^ "Ontario Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter plans to resign seat to run for Toronto mayor". CBC News. March 22, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  12. ^ "Candidates in: Scarborough—Guildwood (095)". Elections Ontario. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
  13. ^ "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  14. ^ "General Election Results by District, 082 Scarborough—Guildwood". Elections Ontario. 2014. Archived from the original on 17 June 2014. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  15. ^ "Summary of Valid Ballots Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2014-05-05.

External links[edit]

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