Special to The Ukrainian Weekly
OTTAWA – Canadian Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau’s 184-member Liberal House of Commons caucus will include at least seven Members of Parliament with Ukrainian lineage elected on October 19 following the Liberal Party’s landslide majority win, according to a list compiled by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC).
Alberta-born Chrystia Freeland, who served as Liberal trade critic in the last Parliament, easily won re-election to the House of Commons with 27,806 votes compared to 15,969 for her nearest challenger, Harvard graduate and former MuchMusic VJ Jennifer Hollett of the left-of-center New Democratic Party (NDP).
Chrystia Freeland, who was elected to Canada’s Parliament as Liberal Party candidate, in the profile photos from her Facebook page.
Ms. Freeland previously represented the Toronto Center riding, which she won in a 2013 by-election following former Liberal leader Bob Rae’s retirement from politics. She’s now the MP for the new riding of University-Rosedale that incorporates parts of Toronto Center and another riding, and which was created three years ago when 30 more ridings were added to Canada’s electoral map.
A well-known journalist and writer, frequent panelist on the popular HBO series “Real Time with Bill Maher,” and one of 13 Canadians banned by Russian President Vladimir Putin from traveling to his country, 47-year-old Ms. Freeland is favored to be named to Mr. Trudeau’s Cabinet, whose members will be sworn in on November 4.
Joining her in the Liberal caucus will be Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who returns to Parliament Hill after losing the Toronto riding of Etobicoke Center to Conservative candidate Ted Opitz by just 26 votes in the last federal election in 2011.
Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who was elected to Canada’s Parliament as Liberal Party candidate, in the profile photos from his Facebook page.
This time, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj won by a huge, 14,637-vote margin (37,712 compared to 23,075 for Mr. Opitz), relieving the returning Liberal MP of having to re-engage the courts to decide on a winner, which in the case of the 2011 results found the matter finally resolved by the Supreme Court of Canada three years ago in Mr. Opitz’s favor. The 2015 results were more along the lines of the large margins 54-year-old Mr. Wrzesnewskyj had attained when he won the same seat in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
The Liberals will have three Ukrainian-Canadian newcomers from Ontario representing them in the Commons.
Julie Dzerowicz, a senior bank employee with provincial Liberal Party experience, reclaimed the long-time Liberal Toronto riding of Davenport by defeating NDP incumbent Andrew Cash by a 1,435-vote margin. Meanwhile, lawyer Kyle Peterson defeated Conservative Lois Brown, who served as parliamentary secretary to the international development minister, capturing Newmarket-Aurora by 1,454 votes.
Another lawyer, Don Rusnak, the son of Ukrainian and Ojibway parents, was the first aboriginal candidate in the northwestern Ontario riding of Thunder Bay-Rainy River and won it for the Liberals with 18,523 votes over NDP incumbent John Rafferty’s 12,439.
Next door in Manitoba, two Ukrainian Canadians will sit for the Liberals in the House of Commons.
A former NDP provincial Cabinet minister, MaryAnn Mihychuk, will be the new MP for the Winnipeg riding of Kildonan-St. Paul.
The 60-year-old geologist, who previously ran for the Winnipeg mayor’s job, won the riding left vacant after Conservative incumbent Joy Smith, who has held the seat since it was created in 2004, chose not to seek re-election. Ms. Mihychuk outdistanced Conservative candidate Jim Bell by 1,220 votes.
The other Liberal, Terry (Taras) Duguid was luckier in his second run at becoming the MP for Winnipeg South.
In his first attempt in 2011, he lost to Conservative incumbent Rod Bruinooge, who chose not to seek re-election in 2015. This time, Mr. Duguid, a former Winnipeg city councilor and past executive director of Manitoba’s Liberal Party, won the riding with 27,516 votes, or 58 percent of those cast.
The UCC identified four Ukrainian Canadians who will return to Ottawa to serve in the Official Opposition Conservative caucus.
James Bezan (also on President Putin’s banned-Canadians list) won the Manitoba riding of Selkirk-Interlake (renamed Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman in 2012) for the fifth time with more than 50 percent of the vote. In 2006, the 50-year-old former parliamentary secretary to Canada’s defense minister fended off a challenge from high-profile NDP candidate Ed Schreyer, whose maternal grandparents immigrated to Canada from western Ukraine and who became the first former Canadian governor general to run for elected office.
In Alberta, Rona Ambrose, who served in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Cabinet most recently as health minister, was overwhelmingly re-elected in the Edmonton-area riding of Sturgeon River-Parkland with 70 percent of the vote, or 42,977 votes.
Next door in Yellowhead, Jim Eglinski was also re-elected with an even higher percentage – 72 percent, or 37,850 votes.
A retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and former mayor of the British Columbia (BC) city of Fort St. John, Mr. Eglinski, 66, won the riding – once held by former Canadian Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark – last November in a by-election.
And in British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province, Mark Warawa, former parliamentary secretary to the environment minister, won Langley-Aldergrove, a riding split into two from its former incarnation, Langley, which he held since 2004.
UCC
Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau (left) with Ukrainian Canadian Congress President Paul Grod and UCC First Vice-President Renata Roman.
While Prime Minister Harper was a huge supporter of the Ukrainian government and its fight against Russian-backed rebels, the UCC expects his Liberal successor to take a similar stance following an October 13 meeting congress officials had with Mr. Trudeau.
“Mr. Trudeau made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that Ukraine will remain a top foreign policy priority for a Liberal government under his leadership,” UCC National President Paul Grod said in a statement the day after this year’s Canadian election.
“Mr. Trudeau’s strong statements in support of Ukraine and opposition to Russia’s aggression leave no doubt that his government will strongly support Ukraine.”
In the UCC’s 2015 federal election questionnaire, sent to the leaders and local candidates of Canada’s four major political parties that include the Greens, the federal Liberal Party of Canada indicated that it supports both Ukraine’s admission into NATO, if sought, and Canadian Armed Forces’ participation in a non-combat training mission in Ukraine. The party would also expand Canada’s sanctions against Russia to include Putin allies Igor Sechin and Vladimir Yakunin.