Liz Sandals (née MacNaughton; born c. 1947)[1] is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2018 who represented the ridings of Guelph—Wellington and Guelph. She served in cabinet as the President of the Treasury Board until January 17, 2018 and previously served for three years as Minister of Education in the government of Kathleen Wynne.

Liz Sandals
Sandals at the 2017 ROMA Conference
Ontario MPP
In office
2003–2018
Preceded byBrenda Elliott
Succeeded byMike Schreiner
ConstituencyGuelph
Guelph—Wellington (2003-2007)
Personal details
Born
Liz MacNaughton

1947 (age 76–77)
Guelph, Ontario
Political partyLiberal
SpouseDavid Sandals
Children2
Residence(s)Guelph, Ontario
OccupationTeacher

Background

Sandals was born and raised in the Guelph, Ontario area as Liz MacNaughton. Her father, Earl MacNaughton was the founding dean of the College of Physics at the University of Guelph. She graduated from Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute in 1966,[2] and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Guelph in 1969 as well as a Master of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo in 1971.[3][4] She taught computer science at the University of Guelph.[3] Sandals lives in Guelph with her husband David where they raised two children.

Politics

School board

Sandals was elected to her local public school board in 1988, and was re-elected four times.[3] From 1998 to 2002, she served as president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association.[3] Sandals was the recipient of the first Outstanding Contribution to Education Award, granted by the Ontario Principals' Council.[5]

Provincial politics

In 2003, she ran for the Ontario Liberal Party nomination in the riding of Guelph, and defeated two long-time Liberals. While she was a past supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party and worked for the 1995 campaign of rival Tory MPP Brenda Elliott,[6][7] Sandals defeated Elliott in the Ontario provincial election of 2003 by 2,872 votes in the riding of Guelph—Wellington. During the 2003-2007 session she served as parliamentary assistant for several portfolios including Education. After being re-elected in 2007 in the redistributed riding of Guelph, she was again appointed as parliamentary assistant to portfolios including education and transportation. She was re-elected again in the 2011 election.[8] On February 11, 2013, Sandals was appointed as the Minister of Education by Premier Kathleen Wynne.[9] She was re-elected in 2014.[10] On June 13, 2016, she was appointed as President of the Treasury Board.[11]

As Minister of Education, Sandals oversaw the transition to a new collective bargaining system in the education system in Ontario. This new 2-tier collective bargaining structure resulted in new teacher contracts being signed with all of the major teachers' unions in 2015. Sandals also oversaw changes to the sex education curriculum, the first update to the curriculum since the late 1990s.

On October 6, 2017, she announced that she would not seek re-election in 2018.[1]

Cabinet positions

Ontario provincial government of Kathleen Wynne
Cabinet posts (2)
Predecessor Office Successor
Deb Matthews President of the Treasury Board
2016-2018
Eleanor McMahon
Laurel Broten Minister of Education
2013–2016
Mitzie Hunter

Electoral record

2014 Ontario general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Liz Sandals 22,014 41.52 -0.91
Progressive Conservative Anthony MacDonald 11,048 20.84 -4.76
Green Mike Schreiner 10,230 19.29 +12.36
New Democratic James Gordon 9,385 17.70 -6.18
Communist Juanita Burnett 178 0.34 +0.04
Libertarian Blair Smythe 170 0.32 -0.33
Total valid votes 53,025 100.00
Liberal hold Swing +1.92
Source: Elections Ontario[12]
2011 Ontario general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Liz Sandals 19,734 42.3 +1.5
Progressive Conservative Greg Schirk 11,950 25.6 +0.9
New Democratic James Gordon 11,148 23.9 +10.0
Green Steve Dyck 3,234 6.9 -12.6
Libertarian Philip Bender 305 0.70
Communist Drew Garvie 139 0.30 -0.10
Independent Julian Ichim 100 0.20
Total valid votes 46,610 100.0
2007 Ontario general election
Party Candidate Votes %
Liberal Liz Sandals 20,188 40.8
Progressive Conservative Bob Senechal 12,258 24.7
Green Ben Polley 9,635 19.5
New Democratic Karan Mann-Bowers 6,862 13.9
Family Coalition John Gots 402 0.8
Communist Drew Garvie 196 0.4
2003 Ontario general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Liz Sandals 23,607 42.3
Progressive Conservative Brenda Elliott 20,735 37.1
New Democratic James Valcke 6,699 12.0
Green Ben Polley 3,917 7.0
Family Coalition Alan McDonald 914 1.6

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Ontario Treasury Board President and Guelph MPP Liz Sandals not seeking re-election". CBC News. 6 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Reunion Registrants" (PDF). Guelph Vocational Institute Alumni Association. 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d Sandals, Liz. "Liz Sandals MPP: Biography". Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  4. ^ "How We Can Revolutionize Women's Education". Media Planet. June 2014. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014.
  5. ^ "Office of the Premiere, Meet the team". Retrieved 22 December 2010.
  6. ^ Stead, Hilary (31 May 2002). "Sandals chosen to lead local Liberals provincially". Daily Mercury. p. A1.
  7. ^ "Tough choices in local ridings". Daily Mercury. 30 September 2003. p. A10.
  8. ^ "Summary of Valid Ballots Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 6 October 2011. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  9. ^ "Ontario's new cabinet". Waterloo Region Record. Kitchener, Ont. 12 February 2013. p. A3.
  10. ^ "General Election by District: Guelph". Elections Ontario. 12 June 2014. Archived from the original on 14 June 2014.
  11. ^ "Kathleen Wynne's shuffled cabinet features 40% women". CBC News. 13 June 2016.
  12. ^ Elections Ontario. "General Election Results by District, 027 Guelph". Archived from the original on 14 June 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2014.