Chris Charlton (born July 4, 1963) is a German-born, retired Canadian politician from the City of

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

. As a

New Democrat New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturall ...

, she served as the member of Parliament for

Hamilton Mountain Hamilton is located on the western end of the Niagara Peninsula and wraps around the westernmost part of the Lake Ontario. Most of the city including the downtown section lies along the south shore. Situated in the geographic centre of the Gold ...

from

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

until 2015.

Background

Charlton was born in

Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and immigrated to Canada with her parents in 1975. She attended the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

for undergraduate studies and then

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

to pursue a master's degree in Political Science. During this time, she became active with the New Democratic Youth club on campus. Soon after,

Bob Rae Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...

and the New Democrats came to power in Ontario, and Charlton received a job as a political advisor with the government, where her husband,

Brian Charlton Brian Albert Charlton (born May 22, 1947) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1977 to 1995 who represented the riding of Hamilton Mountain. He served as a cabin ...

(whom she married in 1992), was a cabinet minister. When the Progressive Conservatives defeated Rae's government in the 1995 provincial election.

Politics

At the time the Hamilton Mountain New Democrats held their nomination meeting to declare a candidate to run against Beth Phinney in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, Charlton had become a Teaching Assistant at U of T and had nearly completed her studies. Though only 33 at the time, she had already served as an advisor to Bob Rae's government, and went unopposed in the nomination. On election night, she placed 4th out of 6 candidates, which would be the lowest she would ever poll in an election campaign. Over the course of the next 9 years, she would run in the 1999 provincial election and the 2003 provincial election, the Hamilton municipal election of 2000 and two federal elections in

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. Just prior to the 2006 election, she was the Director of Community Relations with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Canada, but resigned her position to stand again, this time against Ward 7 Councillor Bill Kelly, who she attempted to unseat in the Hamilton municipal election of 2000. Charlton won that race by a 6-point margin, and retook the riding for the New Democrats after 17 years of Liberal representation. In

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, Charlton faced another former Ward 7 councillor, Terry Anderson of the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and local lawyer Tyler Banham of the Liberals. Despite an aggressive internet campaign on behalf of the Liberals, the race became a New Democrat-Conservative match, which saw Charlton increase voter support despite a lower voter turnout than in 2006. Charlton announce on December 5, 2014 that she was not going to run for re-election in the next federal election in a year's time, after almost a decade in parliament and 25 years in politics. In the 2009 Ontario New Democratic Leadership race, Charlton officially endorsed

Andrea Horwath Andrea Horwath (; born October 24, 1962) is a Canadian politician who has been the 58th mayor of Hamilton since 2022. Horwath previously served as the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Hamilton Centre from 2004 to 2022, as leader of t ...

for leader, who would win the position on the third ballot.

Electoral history

Federal

Provincial

Municipal

, - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" !rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , Candidate !colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" , Popular vote , - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" , style="text-align:center;" , Votes , style="text-align:center;" , % , style="text-align:center;" , ±% , - , style="background-color:#FF0800;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Bill Kelly (incumbent) , style="text-align:right;" , 10,482 , style="text-align:right;" , 60.83% , style="text-align:right;" , +-% , - , style="background-color:#FF7E00;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Chris Charlton , style="text-align:right;" , 6,011 , style="text-align:right;" , 34.88% , style="text-align:right;" , ''n/a'' , - , style="background-color:#0047AB;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Mark Allan Whittle , style="text-align:right;" , 740 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.29% , style="text-align:right;" , ''+-%'' , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Total votes , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 17,233 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 100% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Registered voters , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 39,377 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 43.76 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , '' , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="6" , Note: All Hamilton Municipal Elections are officially non-partisan.
Note: Candidate campaign colours are based on the prominent colour used in campaign items (signs, literature, etc.)
and are used as a visual differentiation between candidates. , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="13" , Sources: "Expressway, balance sheet weigh heavy in Ward 7", October 30, 2003 Thursday Final Edition, LOCAL; Pg. A08, 948 words

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Charlton, Chris 1963 births German emigrants to Canada Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Living people McMaster University alumni Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario New Democratic Party MPs Politicians from Hamilton, Ontario University of Toronto alumni University of Western Ontario alumni Women in Ontario politics 21st-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians