Judy Sgro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office November 15, 1999 |
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| Preceded by | Sergio Marchi |
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| Born | December 16, 1944 Moncton, New Brunswick |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse | Sam Sgro |
| Residence | Toronto |
| Profession | Municipal councillor |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Judy Sgro, PC, MP (born December 16, 1944 in Moncton, New Brunswick) is a Canadian politician. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, she currently represents the electoral district of York West in the Canadian House of Commons.
Sgro was first elected in a 1999 by-election, and was re-elected in the general elections of 2000 and 2004. She was made Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in the government of Paul Martin on December 12, 2003.
A former Toronto City Councillor, she was named chairperson of the Prime Minister's "Caucus Task Force on Urban Issues" shortly after her first election. She served on Toronto City Council from 1994 to 1999 and on North York City Council from 1987 to 1994. In the 1997 federal election, she challenged Independent incumbent John Nunziata unsuccessfully, losing by 4,431 votes.
In November, 2004 controversy began to surround Sgro as questions arose surrounding her activities during the June election earlier that year. Several members of her ministerial staff had filed expense claims to travel to and work in her riding throughout the campaign ending on election day. More serious claims were also raised when Opposition Conservative MPs claimed she had given a special immigration permit to a campaign supporter — specifically Alina Balaican, a Romanian who had initially been admitted to the country to work as a stripper. New Democratic Party MP Pat Martin also accused Sgro's aides of making threats to deny ministerial permits to his constituents if he criticized her on the stripper controversy.[1] The press dubbed the issue "Strippergate".
On January 14, 2005, Sgro resigned from cabinet after further allegations that she had offered to intervene in the immigration hearing of Harjit Singh, a Brampton pizzeria owner, in exchange for free pizza for her campaign staff.[2] The following day, the Toronto Star revealed that Singh had previously committed credit card fraud.[3]
She was the first member of Cabinet to resign from Paul Martin's government. Some in the media have speculated that fellow minister Joe Volpe helped to engineer her resignation, given that both had a cool relationship.[4] Sgro has suggested that Volpe aspired to her job, but he has denied this, noting that he already had a prominent cabinet portfolio.[5] One of Volpe's first acts was to close the loophole which had previously allowed exotic dancers to enter the country easily.[6]
On January 31, 2005, Sgro filed a lawsuit against Singh for $750,000 in damages. On May 10, 2005, Sgro was cleared of all wrong-doing from the Strippergate debacle when it was found that Sgro didn't know that two staffers had put her in a position of conflict of interest. The ethics commissioner also concluded that Sgro had never met the woman or even knew that she had volunteered on her re-election campaign. Also the same day, Singh retracted his allegations.
Sgro has further claimed that she was supposed to get back into cabinet once her name was cleared, which she said she worked hard to do. However, that same May, Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority government was on the brink of defeat in the 38th Canadian Parliament on the implementation of the 2005 budget, with the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois about to bring down the government amid several new developments in the ongoing Gomery Commission inquiry into the Liberal Sponsorship Scandal, with Jean Brault's explosive testimony. The NDP however agreed to support the government in exchange for several concessions from the Liberals including canceling corporate tax cuts and $4.6 billion in spending on social programs. But the government was still in danger of falling as even with NDP support they were one vote shy of half of the seats in Parliament. That was, until, Martin convinced Belinda Stronach to cross the floor and leave the Conservative caucus to join the Liberals, immediately giving her a newly-created cabinet position as Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development - the very same cabinet position Sgro claims she would have gotten. [7]. With Stronach's support the budget passed by one vote and Martin's government survived. But the Liberals would go on to lose the confidence of the House that November, and ultimately lose power to the Conservatives in the January 2006 election. They have not regained power since, though Sgro is now the Opposition Critic for Veterans Affairs, Seniors & Pensions for the Liberals. [8]
[edit] Election results
| 2006 federal election : York West edit | ||||||
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| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | +/- | Expenditures | |
| Liberal | (x)Judy Sgro | 21,418 | 63.78 | $48,741.93 | ||
| Conservative | Parm Gill | 6,244 | 18.59 | $71,005.65 | ||
| New Democratic Party | Sandra Romano Anthony | 4,724 | 14.07 | $8,845.73 | ||
| Green | Nick Capra | 1,002 | 2.98 | $1,692.18 | ||
| Independent | Axcel Cocon | 192 | 0.57 | $1,801.61 | ||
| Total valid votes | 33,580 | 100.00 | ||||
| Total rejected ballots | 261 | |||||
| Turnout | 33,841 | 57.90 | ||||
| Electors on the lists | 58,450 | |||||
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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