Doly Begum (Bengali: ডলি বেগম) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 provincial election.[1] She represents the riding of Scarborough Southwest as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party. At 29, Doly Begum was the youngest New Democrat among the party's caucus[2] and is the first Bangladeshi-Canadian to be elected to a legislative body in Canada.[3]
Doly Begum | |
|---|---|
 Begum in 2023 | |
| Deputy Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party | |
| Assumed office July 13, 2022 Serving with Sol Mamakwa | |
| Leader | Peter Tabuns Marit Stiles |
| Preceded by | John Vanthof and Sara Singh |
| Critic, Immigration Services and International Credentials | |
| Assumed office July 13, 2022 | |
| Leader | Peter Tabuns |
| Critic, Early Learning and Childcare | |
| In office August 23, 2018 – June 2, 2022 | |
| Leader | Andrea Horwath |
| Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Scarborough Southwest | |
| Assumed office June 7, 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Lorenzo Berardinetti |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Moulvibazar District, Bangladesh |
| Political party | New Democratic |
| Residence(s) | Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario |
| Education | University of Toronto University College London |
| Website | dolybegum |
Early life
editBegum was born in the Moulvibazar District of Bangladesh.[4] She immigrated to Canada as a child with her family,[5] and attended Gordon A. Brown Middle School and W. A. Porter Collegiate Institute.[6]
Thereafter, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in political science, and a Master of Arts in development, administration and planning from University College London. Prior to her candidacy, she was Co-Chair of the Scarborough Health Coalition, Vice-Chair of Warden Woods Community Centre, a research analyst at the Society of Energy Professionals, and was the chief coordinator of the province-wide Keep Hydro Public campaign.
Career
editAs of August 11, 2024, she is the Official Opposition critic for Immigration Services and for International Credentials. Prior to that, she served as the Official Opposition Critic for Citizenship, Foreign Credentials and Immigration Services.[7] Prior to that, she was the Deputy Opposition Whip from August 2019 to February 2021, the Critic for Early Learning and Childcare from August 2018 to February 2021 and a Member of the Standing Committee on Social Policy from July 2018 to October 2019. Her critic portfolio changed to Immigration Services, and International Credentials following the 2022 Ontario general election.
On July 13, 2022, Begum was named a Deputy Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, alongside Sol Mamakwa.[8]
Election results
edit| 2022 Ontario general election: Scarborough Southwest | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| New Democratic | Doly Begum | 16,842 | 47.68 | +2.02 | $103,194 | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Bret Snider | 9,750 | 27.60 | −3.62 | $67,267 | |||
| Liberal | Lisa Patel | 6,556 | 18.56 | −0.38 | $65,227 | |||
| Green | Cara Brideau | 1,251 | 3.54 | +0.84 | $2,506 | |||
| New Blue | Peter Naus | 383 | 1.08 | $609 | ||||
| Ontario Party | Barbara Everatt | 320 | 0.91 | $0 | ||||
| None of the Above | James McNair | 114 | 0.32 | −0.19 | $0 | |||
| Independent | Michelle Parsons | 110 | 0.31 | $0 | ||||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 35,326 | 99.31 | +0.42 | $112,311 | ||||
| Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots | 247 | 0.69 | −0.42 | |||||
| Turnout | 35,573 | 44.34 | −8.85 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 79,624 | |||||||
| New Democratic hold | Swing | +2.82 | ||||||
Source(s)
| ||||||||
| 2018 Ontario general election: Scarborough Southwest | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| New Democratic | Doly Begum | 19,835 | 45.66 | +22.01 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Gary Ellis | 13,565 | 31.22 | +10.58 | ||||
| Liberal | Lorenzo Berardinetti | 8,228 | 18.94 | -31.28 | ||||
| Green | David Del Grande | 1,174 | 2.70 | -1.37 | ||||
| None of the Above | Allen Atkinson | 222 | 0.51 | |||||
| Libertarian | James Speirs | 195 | 0.45 | -0.44 | ||||
| Special Needs | Willie Little | 160 | 0.37 | |||||
| Trillium | Bobby Turley | 64 | 0.15 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 43,443 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Ontario[9] | ||||||||
References
edit- ^ Palamarchuk, Andrew (June 7, 2018). "NDP candidate Doly Begum ends Liberal reign in Scarborough Southwest". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 8, 2018.
- ^ "73 new MPPs ride Ontario's wave of change to Queen's Park". CBC News Toronto, June 16, 2018.
- ^ "Bangladeshi-origin Doly Begum becomes MP of a Canadian provincial House". Dhaka Tribune. 2018-06-08. Retrieved 2021-10-17.
- ^ "Doly Begum makes history, wins big in Ontario provincial polls". The Daily Star. June 8, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
- ^ "NDP candidate Doly Begum ends Liberal reign in Scarborough Southwest". Toronto Star. June 7, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
- ^ @DolyBegum (September 21, 2018). "Heading to my former high school - Satec @ WA Porter - to join the incredible students on the Ontario wide student walk out" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Raza, Ali (February 5, 2021). "Scarborough Southwest MPP Begum takes on new critic role for NDP at Queen's Park". Beach Metro Community News. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
- ^ "Scarborough Southwest MPP Doly Begum named deputy leader of Ontario NDP". Beach Metro Community News. July 13, 2022. Retrieved December 12, 2023.
- ^ "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 8. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
External links
edit
 | This article about an Ontario MPP is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |