France Gélinas
| France Gélinas | |
|---|---|
| MPP for Nickel Belt | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office October 30, 2007 |
|
| Preceded by | Shelley Martel |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | New Democratic Party |
| Spouse(s) | Keith Harris |
| Children | 3 |
| Residence | Sudbury, Ontario |
| Occupation | physiotherapist, health care administrator |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
France Gélinas is a Canadian politician, who was elected to represent the riding of Nickel Belt in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2007 Ontario election. She is a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party.
Gélinas, a Franco-Ontarian, is trained as a physiotherapist. She has been the executive director of the Community Health Centre of Sudbury, is on the United Way's Citizens' Advisory Panel, and serves as president of the Francophone Reference Group of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. She lives in the Naughton neighbourhood of Sudbury with her husband, Keith Harris, and has three children and three grandchildren.
She has been named the party's critic for Health and Long-Term Care, Northern Development and Mines, Seniors and Disabilities in the NDP's shadow cabinet. In May 2008, she joined caucus colleagues Michael Prue and Peter Tabuns in calling on the provincial government to crack down on private hydroelectricity marketers.[1]
She has been an outspoken critic of competitive bidding in the province's home care services,[2] and of layoffs affecting nurses in the province's hospitals.[3]
Following the announcement of Howard Hampton's retirement as leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, there was some speculation in Sudbury's local media that Gélinas might join the leadership campaign. However, she indicated on June 16, 2008 that as a relatively new MPP, she did not feel that she was ready to become a leadership candidate.[4] She later endorsed Gilles Bisson for the leadership, and supported the eventual winner, Andrea Horwath, on the final ballot at the convention.
In 2009, Gélinas introduced the Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating bill, a private member's bill which would mandate the provision of nutritional and calorie information on restaurant menus.[5] In 2011, she introduced a private member's bill to have the provincial Commissioner of French Language Services report to the full Legislative Assembly of Ontario, rather than exclusively to the Minister of Francophone Affairs.[6]
[edit] Electoral record
| Ontario general election, 2007 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| New Democrat | France Gélinas | 15,126 | 46.6 | 0.08 | |
| Liberal | Ron Dupuis | 12,341 | 38.0 | -0.64 | |
| Progressive Conservative | Renée Germain | 3,264 | 10.1 | -3.39 | |
| Green | Fred Twilley | 1,368 | 4.2 | 2.85 | |
| Family Coalition | Richard St-Denis | 341 | 1.1 | ||
[edit] References
- ^ "NDP demands crackdown on door-to-door marketers", Northern Life, May 23, 2008.
- ^ Carol Mulligan, "Bidding for care, Cause for concern -- or rhetoric?", Sudbury Star, February 2009.
- ^ "Nurses protest layoffs in legislature", Toronto Star, March 5, 2009.
- ^ Bradley, Bill, "Gelinas declines to run to replace NDP leader", Northern Life, June 16, 2008.
- ^ Rob Ferguson, "Calorie-count bill clears hurdle". Toronto Star, April 10, 2009.
- ^ "New bill to change who French language commissioner reports to". Sudbury Star, May 30, 2011.
