Meet 10 new faces in Canada’s next Parliament

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This article was published 21/09/2021 (1499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the number of seats may have stayed about the same for the parties following the election, there will still be plenty of new faces in the House of Commons.

Among them will be Conservatives who unseated Liberal cabinet ministers, Ontario’s first Green member of Parliament, a new NDP MP for Nunavut and Liberals who successfully took back seats their party had previously lost.

Their backgrounds are varied, ranging from political strategist to former journalist, non-profit founder to management consultant.

Here are 10 of those new faces:

Rick Perkins

The Conservative candidate in the Nova Scotia riding of South Shore—St. Margarets toppled the incumbent Liberal, Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan. Jordan was in a tough fight to retain her seat, having faced backlash for her handling of the dispute over Indigenous fishing rights in the province. Perkins is a businessman who has worked in both the private and public sectors. During his time in government, he worked on fishery issues and served as a senior adviser to ministers of foreign affairs and veterans affairs.

Joanne Thompson

Thompson won the Newfoundland and Labrador riding of St. John’s East for the Liberals, taking away the NDP’s only seat in Atlantic Canada after the incumbent, long-time MP Jack Harris, did not seek re-election. A former registered nurse, Thompson served as executive director of the Gathering Place, a community health centre in St. John’s that includes an overnight shelter.

Melissa Lantsman

Conservative strategist and political commentator Lantsman kept the GTA riding of Thornhill blue following the retirement of Conservative MP Peter Kent. She also becomes the second openly gay Conservative member of Parliament. Lantsman has worked on federal and provincial Conservative campaigns, including being in charge of the war room for the Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ successful campaign in 2018.

Blake Desjarlais

The NDP candidate ousted Conservative incumbent Kerry Diotte in Edmonton-Griesbach, becoming the first openly two-spirit member of Parliament. Desjarlais is Métis/Cree, according to his NDP biography, and was raised in the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement. He’s a community activist who represented the Métis people at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and has also been an advocate on climate issues.

Leah Taylor Roy

Taylor Roy took back the GTA battleground riding of Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill for the Liberals from Conservative MP Leona Alleslev, who had won the seat for the Liberals in 2015 before crossing the floor to join the Tories. Taylor Roy, who also ran against Alleslev in 2019, is a Harvard graduate who has worked for the World Bank and at management consulting firm McKinsey.

Anna Roberts

The Conservative candidate is projected to take the King-Vaughan seat away from the Liberal incumbent, Minister of Seniors Deb Schulte, in yet another tight election race for the GTA riding. Roberts is a mortgage agent who has worked in the banking and financial sector for decades.

Mike Morrice

Morrice becomes the first Green candidate to win in a federal riding in Ontario, and will join former party leader Elizabeth May in a caucus of two. The riding of Kitchener Centre became a bit of a free-for-all after the Liberal incumbent Raj Saini suspended his campaign earlier this month following allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward female staffers, which he has denied. Morrice, who ran for the Greens in 2019, is the founder of Sustainable Waterloo Region and Green Economy Canada.

Michelle Ferreri

Conservative Ferreri unseated Liberal incumbent and cabinet minister Maryam Monsef in Peterborough-Kawartha — traditionally a bellwether riding, where the candidate elected has been part of the government in almost every election since the riding’s creation. Ferreri is a former reporter with CHEX television and worked as a business development co-ordinator with the Loomex Group.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

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Lori Idlout

Idlout’s win ensures that Nunavut remains an NDP seat, after incumbent MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq did not seek re-election (and called out workplace racism in the House of Commons). An Inuk lawyer, Idlout said she would push Ottawa to invest in affordable housing and health services in the territory. She was also the first executive director of Embrace Life Council, a non-profit suicide prevention organization.

George Chahal

The former Calgary councillor was the sole Liberal candidate to win in that city, after his party was completely shut out in Alberta in 2019. (As of Tuesday afternoon, former Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault was leading by just over 100 votes to take back Edmonton Centre.) Chahal, who will represent Calgary Skyview, was first elected to city council in 2017, where he started and chaired the city’s community-based public safety task force.

Jacques Gallant is a Toronto-based reporter covering politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @JacquesGallant