Marilyn Mushinski
Marilyn Mushinski is a
politician in
Ontario,
Canada. She was a
Progressive Conservative member of the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario from
1995 to
2003, and was briefly a
cabinet minister under
Mike Harris.
Born in
England, Mushinski emigrated to Canada in
1967 at age twenty-one, and was educated at
York University. She worked with the
Canadian Mental Health Association before entering political life. She served as an
alderman and
councillor in
Scarborough from
1982 to
1994, and was also a councillor for Metro
Toronto in
1987-
88. Mushinski also served as a board member of the
Scarborough Hospital and the
Scarborough Women's Centre.
Mushinski was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the
provincial election of 1995, defeating incumbent
New Democratic Party of Ontario David Warner by about 4,000 votes in the
riding of
Scarborough-Ellesmere. On
June 26,
1995, she was named as Ontario's
Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation.
As minister, she repealed
employment equity laws introduced by the previous NDP government. She was dropped from cabinet on
October 10,
1997. Mushinski was criticized in 1997 for making comments that some regarded as offensive to the province's
Tamil community.
In the
provincial election of 1999, Mushinski was re-elected by about 4,000 votes over
Liberal candidate
Costas Manios; NDP candidate and labour leader
Sid Ryan was third. She was not re-appointed to cabinet in the parliament which followed.
In the
2003 provincial election, she was defeated by Liberal candidate
Brad Duguid by over 10,000 votes.
