Mitzie Jacquelin Hunter (born September 14, 1971) is a Canadian politician who represented Scarborough—Guildwood as a member of provincial parliament in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2013 to 2023. A member of the Ontario Liberal Party, Hunter was a provincial cabinet minister from 2014 to 2018 and was the deputy leader of the party from 2022 to 2023. She resigned from the Ontario legislature on May 10, 2023, in order to be a candidate for mayor of Toronto in the 2023 by-election, in which she placed sixth with 2.9% of the vote.[1][2]
Mitzie Hunter | |
|---|---|
.png) Hunter in 2019 | |
| Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Scarborough—Guildwood | |
| In office August 1, 2013 – May 10, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Margarett Best |
| Succeeded by | Andrea Hazell |
| Deputy Leader of the Ontario Liberal Party | |
| In office August 8, 2022 – May 10, 2023 | |
| Leader | John Fraser |
| Ontario Minister of Education | |
| In office June 13, 2016 – January 17, 2018 | |
| Leader | Kathleen Wynne |
| Preceded by | Liz Sandals |
| Succeeded by | Indira Naidoo-Harris |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Mitzie Jacquelin Hunter September 14, 1971 Jamaica |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Residence(s) | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto Scarborough, Rotman School of Management |
Background
Mitzie Jacquelin Hunter[3] was born in Jamaica on September 14, 1971. Her family immigrated to Canada in 1975, moving to Scarborough. Hunter graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts before earning a Master of Business Administration from the Rotman School of Management.[4]
She was CEO of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, and was previously CAO of Toronto Community Housing. She also served as Vice President at Goodwill Industries of Toronto.[5]
Political career
In 2013 she ran as the Liberal candidate in a by-election called to replace Margarett Best, a member of the Ontario Parliament who resigned for health reasons. She defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Ken Kirupa by 1,246 votes.[6] She faced Kirupa again in 2014 this time defeating him by 7,610 votes.[7]
In June 2014, she was appointed as associate minister for the Ministry of Finance responsible for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.[8] On June 13, 2016, she was promoted to the senior position of minister of education.[9]
On January 17, 2018, it was announced that Hunter would leave her position as minister of education to replace outgoing Deb Matthews as the minister of advanced education and skills development.[10]
On August 14, 2019, Hunter announced her candidacy for the 2020 Ontario Liberal Party leadership race. At the leadership convention on March 7, 2020, she finished fourth.[11] She was re-elected in the 2022 Ontario general election.[12]
Hunter became deputy leader of the Ontario Liberals and was considered a possible candidate in the 2023 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election. However, in March 2023, she said that she would be resigning her seat as an MPP to run in the 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election.[13] Hunter lost the election to Olivia Chow, placing sixth with 2.9% of the vote.[14]
Cabinet positions
Electoral record
| 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election | ||
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Olivia Chow | 268,676 | 37.17 |
| Ana Bailão | 234,647 | 32.46 |
| Mark Saunders | 62,017 | 8.58 |
| Anthony Furey | 35,839 | 4.96 |
| Josh Matlow | 35,516 | 4.91 |
| Mitzie Hunter | 21,170 | 2.93 |
| Chloe Brown | 18,763 | 2.60 |
| 95 other candidates | 46,249 | 6.39 |
| Total | 722,877 | 100.00 |
| Source: City of Toronto[15] | ||
| 2022 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Guildwood | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Liberal | Mitzie Hunter | 13,405 | 46.31 | +12.96 | $87,259 | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Alicia Vianga | 9,123 | 31.51 | −1.62 | $78,144 | |||
| New Democratic | Veronica Javier | 4,824 | 16.66 | −10.96 | $42,008 | |||
| Green | Dean Boulding | 818 | 2.83 | +0.38 | $381 | |||
| New Blue | Opa Hope Day | 366 | 1.26 | $1,980 | ||||
| Ontario Party | William Moore | 265 | 0.92 | $0 | ||||
| People's Political Party | Kevin Clarke | 148 | 0.51 | +0.09 | $0 | |||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 28,949 | 99.12 | +0.32 | $98,214 | ||||
| Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots | 256 | 0.88 | -0.32 | |||||
| Turnout | 29,205 | 41.63 | -11.55 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 69,754 | |||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | +7.29 | ||||||
Source(s)
| ||||||||
| 2018 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Guildwood | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Mitzie Hunter | 11,972 | 33.34 | -16.72 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Roshan Nallaratnam | 11,898 | 33.14 | +5.42 | ||||
| New Democratic | Tom Packwood | 9,917 | 27.62 | +10.7 | ||||
| Green | Linda Rice | 878 | 2.45 | -0.49 | ||||
| Libertarian | Hamid-Reza Dehnad-Tabatabaei | 445 | 1.24 | -0.12 | ||||
| Trillium | George Marcos Garvida | 419 | 1.17 | |||||
| Special Needs | Wanda Ryan | 159 | 0.44 | |||||
| The People | Heather Dunbar | 151 | 0.42 | |||||
| Independent | Benjamin Mbaegbu | 66 | 0.18 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 35,905 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | -11.05 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Ontario[16] | ||||||||
| 2014 Ontario general election | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Mitzie Hunter | 17,498 | 50.06 | +14.21 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Ken Kirupa | 9,688 | 27.72 | -3.08 | ||||
| New Democratic | Shuja Syed | 5,915 | 16.92 | -11.43 | ||||
| Green | Jeffrey W. R. Bustard | 1,029 | 2.94 | +0.79 | ||||
| Libertarian | Richard Kerr | 476 | 1.36 | +0.87 | ||||
| Freedom | Khalid Mokhtarzada | 228 | 0.65 | +0.33 | ||||
| Canadians' Choice | John Sawdon | 120 | 0.34 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 34,954 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | +8.64 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Ontario[17] | ||||||||
| Ontario provincial by-election, August 1, 2013 Resignation of Margarett Best | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Mitzie Hunter | 8,852 | 35.85 | -13.09 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Ken Kirupa | 7,605 | 30.80 | +2.15 | ||||
| New Democratic | Adam Giambrone | 7,000 | 28.35 | +8.93 | ||||
| Green | Nick Leeson | 532 | 2.15 | +0.86 | ||||
| Independent | Jim Hamilton | 195 | 0.79 | |||||
| Special Needs | Danish Ahmed | 183 | 0.74 | |||||
| Libertarian | Heath Thomas | 120 | 0.49 | -0.79 | ||||
| Family Coalition | Raphael Rosch | 104 | 0.42 | |||||
| Freedom | Matthew Oliver | 80 | 0.32 | -0.10 | ||||
| The People | Bill Rawdah | 22 | 0.09 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 24,693 | 100.00 | ||||||
| Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 180 | 0.72 | ||||||
| Turnout | 24,873 | 35.83 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 69,425 | |||||||
| Liberal hold | Swing | -7.62 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Ontario[18] | ||||||||