France Gélinas MPP (/ʒeɪliˈnɑː/ zheh-li-NA) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who was elected in 2007. She represents the riding of Nickel Belt.
Background
Gélinas was born and raised in Shawinigan, Quebec. She is trained as a physiotherapist and has been the executive director of the Community Health Centre of Sudbury, on the United Way's Citizens' Advisory Panel, served as president of the Francophone Reference Group of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. She lives in the Naughton neighborhood of Sudbury with her family.[1]
Politics
She ran in the 2007 provincial election as the New Democratic candidate in the riding of Nickel Belt. She defeated Liberal candidate Ron Dupuis by 2,762 votes.[2] She was re-elected in the 2011, 2014 and 2022 elections.[3][4]
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.[5]
She has been an outspoken critic of competitive bidding in the province's home care services,[6] and of layoffs affecting nurses in provincial hospitals.[7]
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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]
In 2014 she was re-elected with 62.66% of the vote, the highest percent of any MPP in Ontario that year.
In 2015, Gélinas introduced a private member's bill to mandate the creation of a fully independent French-language university in Ontario.[11]
She is currently the party's critic for Health and Long-Term Care, and francophone affairs in the NDP's shadow cabinet.[12]
Electoral record
| 2022 Ontario general election: Nickel Belt | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | France Gélinas | 15,611 | 50.77 | −12.73 | $55,649 | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Randy Hazlett | 9,181 | 29.86 | +7.87 | $23,127 | |||
| Liberal | Gilles Proulx | 3,042 | 9.89 | +1.17 | $8,861 | |||
| New Blue | Melanie Savoie | 1,522 | 4.95 | $4,981 | ||||
| Green | Glenys Babcock | 921 | 3.00 | −0.12 | $0 | |||
| Ontario Party | Willy Schneider | 470 | 1.53 | $1,507 | ||||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 30,747 | 99.56 | +0.58 | $106,532 | ||||
| Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots | 137 | 0.44 | -0.58 | |||||
| Turnout | 30,884 | 45.51 | -11.49 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 68,834 | |||||||
| New Democratic hold | Swing | −10.30 | ||||||
Source(s)
| ||||||||
| 2018 Ontario general election: Nickel Belt | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| New Democratic | France Gélinas | 23,157 | 63.50 | +0.84 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Jo-Ann Cardinal | 8,018 | 21.99 | +10.11 | ||||
| Liberal | Tay Butt | 3,182 | 8.73 | -13.19 | ||||
| Green | Bill Crumplin | 1,137 | 3.12 | -0.41 | ||||
| Northern Ontario | Matthew Del Papa | 373 | 1.02 | |||||
| Libertarian | James Chretien | 220 | 0.60 | |||||
| Consensus Ontario | Kevin R. Brault | 214 | 0.59 | |||||
| None of the Above | Bailey Burch-Belanger | 166 | 0.46 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 36,467 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Turnout | 57.00 | |||||||
| Eligible voters | 63,973 | |||||||
| New Democratic hold | Swing | |||||||
| Source: Elections Ontario[13] | ||||||||
| 2014 Ontario general election: Nickel Belt | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| New Democratic | France Gélinas | 19,941 | 62.66 | +7.77 | ||||
| Liberal | James Tregonning | 6,977 | 21.92 | -2.33 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Marck Blay | 3,782 | 11.88 | -6.47 | ||||
| Green | Heather K. Dahlstrom | 1,123 | 3.53 | +1.03 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 31,823 | 100.00 | ||||||
| New Democratic hold | Swing | +5.05 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Ontario[14] | ||||||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Democratic | France Gélinas | 16,826 | 54.89 | +8.26 | |
| Liberal | Tony Ryma | 7,434 | 24.25 | -13.79 | |
| Progressive Conservative | Paula Peroni | 5,625 | 18.35 | +8.29 | |
| Green | Stephanie-Lynn Russell | 770 | 2.5 | -1.72 | |
| Total valid votes | 30,655 | 100.00 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Democratic | 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 | ||
References
- ^ "About France". Retrieved 21 July 2012.
- ^ "Summary of Valid Ballots Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 10 October 2007. p. 9 (xviii). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 October 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
- ^ "Summary of Valid Ballots Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 6 October 2011. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
- ^ "General Election by District: Nickel Belt". Elections Ontario. 12 June 2014. Archived from the original on 14 June 2014.
- ^ "NDP demands crackdown on door-to-door marketers". Northern Life. 23 May 2008. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011.
- ^ Mulligan, Carol (February 2009). "Bidding for care, Cause for concern -- or rhetoric?". Sudbury Star.
- ^ "Nurses protest layoffs in legislature". Toronto Star. 5 March 2009.
- ^ Bradley, Bill (16 June 2008). "Gelinas declines to run to replace NDP leader". Northern Life. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011.
- ^ Ferguson, Rob (10 April 2009). "Calorie-count bill clears hurdle". Toronto Star.
- ^ "New bill to change who French language commissioner reports to". Sudbury Star. 30 May 2011.
- ^ "Ontario needs a French university? Bien sûr, Gélinas says". Northern Life, May 26, 2015.
- ^ Reevely, David (25 June 2014). "Horwath sticks around, names NDP shadow cabinet".
- ^ "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 6. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
- ^ Elections Ontario (2014). "General Election Results by District 056, NIckel Belt". Archived from the original on 14 June 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
