Yasmin Ratansi - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Yasmin Ratansi is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

politician, who represented the riding

Electoral district (Canada)

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...

of Don Valley East

Don Valley East

Don Valley East is a federal electoral district in Canada that covers the northeast section of the North York part of Toronto. The federal riding was created in 1976 from parts of Willowdale, York East, York North, and York—Scarborough ridings....

in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

. She is a member of the Liberal Party

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

. Ratansi is an Ismaili

Ismaili

' is a branch of Shia Islam. It is the second largest branch of Shia Islam, after the Twelvers...

Muslim, and was the first Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons.

Before politics

Born in Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam

Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...

, Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

, she emigrated to Canada in 1974. She worked as a management consultant. She is a Certified General Accountant

Certified General Accountant

Certified General Accountant is the designation of professionals who are jointly members of the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada and a provincial or territorial CGA association, or a CGA association overseas...

(CGA), a member of the Certified General Accountants of Ontario

Certified General Accountants of Ontario

Certified General Accountants of Ontario is the professional association of certified general accountants in the province of Ontario, Canada...

, and a fellow of the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada

Certified General Accountants Association of Canada

The Certified General Accountants Association of Canada is the umbrella organization for Certified General Accountants. CGA-Canada represents 73,000 members and students living and working in Canada, and more than 80 countries around the world...

. In 2009, Ratansi was bestowed with the John Leslie Award by CGA Canada, given in recognition of CGAs "who have achieved a high and favourable profile in the Canadian community."

Politics

In 1979 Ratansi joined the Liberal party and campaigned for David Collenette

David Collenette

David Michael Collenette, PC was a Canadian politician from 1974 to 2004, and a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. A graduate from York University's Glendon College in 1969, he subsequently received his MA from in 2004...

. Later she was the federal Liberal candidate for Don Valley East in the 1988 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1988

The Canadian federal election of 1988 was held November 21, 1988, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 34th Parliament of Canada. It was an election largely fought on a single issue: the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement ....

. In the nomination for the Liberal candidacy leading up to the vote, rival Mel Catre complained that voting irregularities allowed Ratansi supporters to vote freely while his supporters were barred from voting. A subsequent investigation failed to prove these allegations. Ratansi finished in second place 2,838 votes behind the Conservative winner Alan Redway

Alan Redway

Alan Redway, PC, QC is a lawyer and former Canadian politician.After a career in municipal politics culminating in the role of mayor of East York, a borough of Metropolitan Toronto, Redway entered federal politics...

. She served on the party's federal campaign committee in 1992 and was treasurer of the party's Ontario wing from 1993 to 1997. In 1998 she served as one of three co-chairs on the campaign to elect Mel Lastman

Mel Lastman

Melvin Douglas "Mel" Lastman , nicknamed "Mayor Mel", is a former businessman and politician. He is the founder of the Bad Boy Furniture chain. He served as the mayor of the former city of North York, Ontario, Canada from 1972 until 1997. At the end of 1997, North York, along with five other...

as mayor of the newly amalgamated city of Toronto.

In 2004 she ran again facing former MPP David Johnson

David Johnson (Canadian politician)

David John Johnson is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was the mayor of East York from 1982 to 1993, a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1993 to 1999, and a senior cabinet minister in the government of Mike Harris.Johnson has a Bachelor of Science...

. During her campaign she spoke about the issue of immigrant underemployment. She also supported a publicly run health system. She won the riding by more than 10,000 votes.

During her tenure in parliament, Ratansi sat through three parliamentary sessions. During this time she acted as the Official Opposition's Critic for National Revenue and as critic for the Canada Revenue Agency. She also chaired a number of committees including the Status of Women and the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.

Electoral record

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

New Democratic Party

External links

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