Bill Siksay
Bill Siksay,
MP (born
March 11,
1955, in
Oshawa, Ontario to parents Patricia and William Siksay) is a
Canadian politician, the
Member of Parliament (MP) who represents the
British Columbia riding of
Burnabyâ€"Douglas for the
New Democratic Party.
Receiving his high school diploma from McLaughlin Collegiate and Vocational Institute in
Oshawa,
Ontario, Bill attended Victoria College at the
University of Toronto, graduating with a B.A. in 1978. He then enrolled in the M.Div. programme at the Vancouver School of Theology at the
University of British Columbia, studying as a candidate to be a congregational minister in the United Church of Canada. He was one of the first people to come out as gay or lesbian in this process and helped start the debate in the church on the ordination and commissioning of openly gay or lesbian candidates. He did not complete the programme and was not ordained.
Prior to running for elected office, he was constituency assistant to
Svend Robinson for over 18 years. He also ran in the
1997 election in the riding of
Vancouver Centre, but lost to incumbent
Hedy Fry.
When Robinson resigned the Burnabyâ€"Douglas seat in April
2004 due to a controversy around his theft of a piece of jewellery, Siksay won the nomination to replace Robinson as the NDP candidate in the upcoming election, and won the riding in the
Canadian federal election, 2004 on
June 28.
With his election, Siksay became Canada's first Member of Parliament to be elected to his first term in the House of Commons while already openly
gay. All of the previous MPs to come out as gay â€" Robinson,
Libby Davies,
Réal Ménard and
Scott Brison â€" came out only after they were already sitting as MPs, and
Mario Silva officially came out in a
Toronto Star profile shortly after the election.
In the
NDP Shadow Cabinet, Siksay is critic for Citizenship and Immigration, and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues.
In
May 2005, Siksay introduced a bill to amend the
Canadian Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of
gender identity or
expression.
(NDP)In
January 2006, Siksay was re-elected to the Burnaby-Douglas seat with an increased majority.
Siksay resides in Burnaby with his partner The Rev. Brian Burke, and remains an active member of the
United Church of Canada.
