Peggy Nash

She vied for the federal parliamentary seat in the Parkdale–High Park electoral district during the 38th Canadian general election.

Her first term as an MP was during the 39th Canadian Parliament.

Nash became the NDP's Industry Critic and Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.

She introduced a bill to reinstate a national minimum wage of $10 per hour.

Other House of Commons issues she advocated for included ones that dealt with water sustainability, public transit,

and the Arts.

She brought forward legislation including the "Once in a Lifetime" bill, to reunite new Canadians with their families.

She championed several consumer issues such as reducing credit card interest rates, ATM fees, and payday lender interest rates.

As a member of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, Nash was instrumental in stopping the acquisition of MacDonald Dettwiler by U.S.-owned Alliant Techsystems.

MacDonald Dettwiler is the Canadian space company which produced the Canadarm and RADARSAT-2 satellite, and impacts the issue of Canadian Arctic sovereignty.

Nash argued that the sale would have devastated the Canadian aerospace industry and eliminated Canadian control over a technology developed with the aid of millions of Canadian taxpayers' dollars.

Nash has also been active in Parliamentary Friendship Groups for Poland, Ukraine and Tibet.

As the Member of Parliament representing the largest population of Tibetan refugees in Canada, she helped push for a resolution declaring The Dalai Lama an honorary Canadian citizen, and also personally introduced a motion calling for negotiations between China and Tibet.

Both resolutions received unanimous support in the House of Commons.

Peggy A. Nash (born June 28, 1951) is a Canadian labour official and politician from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

She was the New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the Parkdale—High Park electoral district (riding) in Toronto, and was the Official Opposition's Industry Critic.

Before becoming a parliamentarian, she worked as a labour official at the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW).

When that union merged with the Canadian Auto Workers in 1985, she became an assistant to national president Bob White.

When he stepped down, she continued in that same capacity with his successor Basil "Buzz" Hargrove.

She lost a close contest to the incumbent Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Sarmite Bulte on June 28, 2004.

Nash ran again in the 39th Canadian general election, in a rematch of the 2004 campaign.

Bulte came under heavy criticism as she received campaign donations from entertainment companies, which was considered a conflict of interest given she supported stricter copyright laws.

In 2005, she became the first woman to negotiate a major contract with one of the Detroit-based automobile corporations.

She worked as a labour negotiator in the transportation, service and manufacturing sectors and was the first labour woman responsible for major auto negotiations in North America, when she negotiated the 2005 Ford Canada contract.

Nash also wrote articles published in Our Times, Canadian Dimension, The Canadian Forum, and Our Schools Our Selves, and co-authored an article in the Canadian Labour Law Journal.

Nash's initial campaign for electoral office was unsuccessful.

She was first elected as the MP for Parkdale—High Park in the 2006 federal election.

Following the 2006 election, Nash returned to her previous job as a labour official with the CAW.

Nash narrowly won the election with a 4.6% margin, or 2,301 votes, on January 23, 2006.

She was a parliamentary representative on the 2006 Canadian post-war fact-finding mission to Lebanon that was condemned by the Conservative government for its support for the legalization and decriminalization of Hezbollah in Canada.

In the 2008 federal election, she was defeated in her re-election bid by Liberal candidate Gerard Kennedy.

In the 40th Canadian general election, held on October 14, 2008, she was defeated by Gerard Kennedy, the Liberal candidate who formerly represented the electoral district at the provincial level.

She was elected to a two-year term as the federal NDP's president on August 15, 2009, at the party's convention in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

She was a candidate again in the 2011 federal election, and defeated Kennedy, earning 47% of the vote to regain her former seat in the House of Commons of Canada.

In 2012, Nash was a candidate for the leadership of the federal NDP.

She finished fourth on the second ballot at the party's convention in Toronto on March 24, 2012.

In April 2012, she was reappointed as the NDP's Finance Critic by new leader Thomas Mulcair.

Nash was born in Toronto, and holds an Honours B.A. in French language and literature from the University of Toronto and is fluent in English, French, and Spanish.

Nash has lived in the Parkdale—High Park electoral district for over twenty years, where she is married with three sons.

In the years before she ran for parliament, Nash worked as a ticket agent and union activist with the Canadian Airline Employees Association.