Peggy A. Nash
Member of Parliament for Parkdale—High Park
In office 2006 – 2008
Preceded by	Sarmite Bulte
Succeeded by	Gerard Kennedy
Born	June 28, 1951 (1951-06-28) (age 58) Toronto, Ontario
Political party	New Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Carl Kaufman
Residence	Toronto
Profession	Labour negotiator, President of the New Democratic Party of Canada

Peggy A. Nash (born June 28, 1951 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian labour official and politician. She was a New Democratic Party Member of Parliament from 2006 to 2008, representing the Parkdale—High Park riding in the House of Commons. She was elected President of the NDP in August 2009 in the party's convention in Halifax.

Contents 1 Life prior to politics 2 Member of Parliament 3 Achievements 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Life prior to politics

Nash was born in Toronto, and holds an Honours B.A. in French language and literature from the University of Toronto and is fluent in English, French and Spanish.^[1] Nash has lived in the Parkdale—High Park electoral district for over twenty years, where she is married with three sons.^[2] In the years before she ran for parliament, Nash worked as a ticket agent and union activist with the Canadian Airline Employees Association. When that union merged with the Canadian Auto Workers in 1985, she became an assistant to national president Bob White. When he stepped down, she continued in that same capacity with his successor Basil "Buzz" Hargrove. She worked as a labour negotiator in the transportation, service and manufacturing sectors and was the first labour woman responsible for major auto negotiations in North America, when she negotiated the 2005 Ford Canada contract. ^[3]

[edit] Member of Parliament

Nash unsuccessfully first ran in the Parkdale–High Park riding in the 2004 Canadian federal election.^[1] She lost a close contest to the incumbent Liberal Member of Parliament Sarmite Bulte.^[4] Nash ran again in the 2006 federal election, in a rematch of the 2004 campaign. Bulte came under heavy criticism as she received campaign donations from entertainment companies, which was considered a conflict of interest given she supported stricter copyright laws.^[5] Nash narrowly won the election by a 4.6% margin or 2301 votes.^[4]

As a Member of Parliament (MP), Nash became the NDP's Industry Critic and Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.^[1] She introduced a bill to reinstate a national minimum wage of $10 per hour.^[6] Other House of Commons issues she advocated for included ones that dealt with water sustainability,^[7] public transit,^[8] and the Arts.^[9] She brought forward legislation including the "Once in a Lifetime" bill, to reunite new Canadians with their families.^[10] She championed many important consumer issues such as reducing credit card interest rates, unfair ATM fees, and usurious payday lender interest rates.^[11]

Most recently –- as a member of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology -- ^[1] Nash was instrumental in stopping the foreign takeover of MacDonald Dettwiler,^[12] the Canadian space company which produced the Canadarm and RADARSAT-2 satellite, critical to the issue of Canadian Arctic sovereignty. If the sale went through, it would have devastated the Canadian aerospace industry and its high-paying jobs, as well as the distinct possibility of losing control over a technology developed with the aid of millions of Canadian taxpayers' dollars.^[13]

Nash has also been active in Parliamentary Friendship Groups for Poland, Ukraine and Tibet. As the Member of Parliament representing the largest population of Tibetan refugees in Canada, she helped push for a resolution declaring the Dalai Lama an honorary Canadian citizen, and also personally introduced a motion calling for negotiations between China and Tibet.^[14] Both resolutions received unanimous support in the House of Commons.^[14]

In the 2008 federal election, she was defeated by Gerard Kennedy, the Liberal candidate who formerly represented the electoral district at the provincial level.^[15] Nash was subsequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the Ontario New Democratic Party leadership race, although, in the end, she decided against running.^[16]

After leaving Parliament, she returned to her position as one of the five assistants to CAW president Ken Lewenza. Her new duties within the CAW shifted from transportation, to dealing with CAW bargaining units in post-secondary education and airlines. Her responsibilities also included representing the union at the Canadian Labour Congress(CLC).^[3] At the federal party's national convention, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she was elected party President on August 15, 2009.^[17]

[edit] Achievements

She has been involved with many organizations advancing women's equality. She was a founding member of Equal Voice, an all-party organization which advocates for the election of more women in Canada,^[1] and was a recipient of a Certificate of Honour from the City of Toronto for her contribution to women’s equality.

Nash is the recipient of the 2009 YWCA Toronto Woman of Distinction award for Labour, for leading the way for working mothers and their children.

In 2006, NOW named Nash the Best MP in Toronto.^[18] Her parliamentary duties also included being a parliamentary representative on the fact-finding mission to war-torn Lebanon in 2006;^[19] and was a member of a Parliamentary Delegation to Israel and the West Bank in 2008. Her foreign experience also includes being a Canadian election monitor in the first post-apartheid elections in South Africa in 1994; and, in the 2004 and 2007 Ukrainian elections. She was the recipient of two environmental awards from the Sierra Club of Canada and she helped create the NDP Green Car Strategy with Greenpeace and the Canadian Auto Workers.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Parliament of Canada biography