Albina Guarnieri

Albina Guarnieri, PC, MP, MA (born June 23 1953 in Faeto, Italy) is a Canadian politician. A member of Paul Martin's Liberal government, she was Canada's 24th Minister of Veterans Affairs.

Guarnieri was first elected as Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Mississauga East (now Mississauga Eastâ€"Cooksville) in 1988 and has been re-elected in each subsequent election. A longtime Martin loyalist, she was a relatively obscure backbencher during the ChrĂ©tien era. Martin named her Associate Minister of National Defence and Minister of State for Civil Preparedness in his first cabinet. She moved to Veterans Affairs on July 20 2004.

Ms. Guarnieri's previous parliamentary roles have included serving as Chair of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, Chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations, and Co-Chair of the Standing Committee on Official languages. She has served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage and has been a member of the Standing Committee on Finance.

In Parliament, through Private Members' Bills and committee work, Ms. Guarnieri has promoted initiatives to retrain older workers, establish personal training accounts for lifelong learning, combat identity fraud by reforming the Social Insurance Numbering system, impose consecutive sentencing for multiple murderers, toughen laws against child pornography, and lower middle-income tax rates.

Guarnieri was initially an opponent of Same Sex Marriage. However, due to her appointment to Cabinet she changed her position on the issue, and voted in favour of the same-sex marriage legislation.

Fluent in both official languages, Ms. Guarnieri was educated at McGill University, where she graduated with a Master's degree in English. She and her husband live in Mississauga.