Anita Anand

Anita Indira Anand (born 1967) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who has served as the president of the Treasury Board since July 2023.

Anand relocated to Ontario in 1985 to pursue her undergraduate degree at Queen’s University in political studies.

After winning the gold medal in Political Studies in 1989, she went to Wadham College, Oxford to read law.

After completing her studies in Oxford, she returned to Nova Scotia, to obtain her Canadian law degree at Dalhousie University before articling in Toronto.

She met her husband, John, there.

She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1994.

Anand has held academic positions at Yale, Queen's University and Western University.

Before her election, Anand was a law professor at the University of Toronto.

Before her political career, Anand was a professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law specializing in corporate governance and the regulation of capital markets.

She was previously the J.R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance at the Faculty.

Anand began her legal career as an associate at Torys from 1994 to 1997 (with leave to pursue her master's degree), after articling at Torys from 1992 to 1993.

They married in 1995 and raised their family in Oakville for 21 years (1997-1999 and 2005 to present).

The couple have four children.

Anand holds four degrees: a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in political studies from Queen's University; a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in jurisprudence from Wadham College, Oxford University; a bachelor of laws from Dalhousie University; and a master of laws from the University of Toronto.

She then pursued her teaching career by serving as assistant professor (adjunct) from 1997 to 1999 at the Faculty of Law of Western University.

In 1999, she became assistant professor in the Faculty of Law at Queen's University, obtaining tenure and advancing to the rank of associate professor in 2003.

She received a U.S.-Canada Fulbright award in 2005 and attended Yale Law School as a visiting lecturer in law (fall 2005) while teaching comparative corporate governance.

She was also visiting Olin scholar in law and economics at Yale Law School (2005-2006) and undertook empirical research on the implications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act on Canadian public companies.

Anand left Queen's University for the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto in 2006 where she was a full professor.

She served as associate dean from 2007 to 2009.

From 2010 to 2019, Anand also served as the academic director of the Centre for the Legal Profession, as well as for its Program on Ethics in Law and Business.

At the time of her election, she was a senior fellow and member of the Board of Governors of Massey College.

She was also cross-appointed to the Rotman School of Management as the director of policy and research at the Capital Markets Research Institute, and to the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

She has represented the riding of Oakville in the House of Commons since the 2019 federal election, sitting as a member of the Liberal Party.

From 2019 to 2021, she served as minister of public services and procurement.

She oversaw Canada's procurement of vaccines and personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

From 2021 to 2023, while serving as minister of national defence, Anand led Canada's efforts to provide military aid to Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, sought to reform the culture in the Canadian Armed Forces following a series of sexual misconduct scandals, and made efforts to reform and strengthen Canada's military procurement of warships and airplanes, as well as re-establishing Canada's military status amid broad criticism.

She is the first Hindu woman to be elected as a Member of Parliament and the first Hindu to become a Cabinet Minister in Canada.

Anita Indira Anand was born in Kentville, Nova Scotia.

Her parents (both now deceased) were both Indian physicians; her mother Saroj D. Ram was an anesthesiologist, and her father S.V. (Andy) Anand was a general surgeon.

Her father was from Tamil Nadu and her mother was from Punjab.

Anand has two sisters: Gita Anand, who is an employment lawyer in Toronto, and Sonia Anand, who is a physician and researcher at McMaster University.

As of October 2019, Anand is on leave from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law for the duration of her time as an elected official.

On September 17, 2019, it was announced that Anand would receive the Yvan Allaire Medal from the Royal Society of Canada.

The medal is bestowed annually for an outstanding contribution in governance of private and public organizations.

The Royal Society stated that Anand's research "significantly altered global thinking about best practices for boards of directors, including the importance of diversity on boards".

In the lead up to the 2019 federal election, Anand decided to pursue the Liberal nomination for the riding of Oakville, Ontario, after the incumbent John Oliver announced that he would not run in the 2019 election.

On June 12, 2019, Anita Anand won the Liberal nomination for the riding of Oakville, Ontario by a majority of votes on the first ballot.

She defeated former member of Provincial Parliament Kevin Flynn and lawyer Tamur Shah for the nomination.

On October 21, 2019, Anand won the riding of Oakville with 30,265 votes.