Bev Desjarlais

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

Bev Desjarlais (August 19, 1955 in Regina, Saskatchewan) is a member of the Canada House of Commons, representing the northern Manitoba riding of Churchill for the social-democratic New Democratic Party of Canada.

Desjarlais graduated from Bert Fox Composite High School in 1973, and did not attend University. Between 1974 and 1997, she was an employee of the General Hospital in Thompson, a community in northern Manitoba. She was for a time a Union Steward with the United Food & Commericial Workers Union, and was a board member of the Thompson Food Co-op and Thompson Children's World Daycare. She was also a member of Canadian Parents for French.

Desjarlais's political career began in 1992, when she was elected as a school trustee for the Mystery Lake School Division. She was a member of the board until 1997, becoming its chair in 1994.

In the Canadian federal election of 1997, Desjarlais ran as an NDP candidate in Churchill against incumbent MP Elijah Harper, who represented the Liberal Party. Although Harper's actions in stopping the Meech Lake Accord in 1990 brought him national fame, he was not widely regarded as a strong Member of Parliament. Desjarlais defeated him 9616 votes to 6852, and joined twenty other New Democrats on the opposition benches in parliament.

Desjarlais again defeated Harper in the 2000 general election, by a margin of 10477 votes to 7514. In 2003, she supported fellow Manitoba MP Bill Blaikie's bid to become NDP leader.

In the 2004 election, she defeated Liberal candidate Ron Evans (who, like Harper, is a prominent aboriginal activist in the region), 8612 votes 7604.

Desjarlais is known as one of the more socially conservative figures in the federal NDP ranks. She is known as oppose same-sex marriage (though she abstained from voting on the measure in 2003). On other issues, particularly those involving the rights of labour, her views are more closely aligned with others in the NDP.