Melissa Lantsman is a Canadian politician and public relations executive who serves as the Member of Parliament for Thornhill in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

. A member of the

Conservative Party of Canada The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Con ...

, she was elected in the

2021 Canadian federal election The 2021 Canadian federal election was held on September 20, 2021, to elect members of the House of Commons to the 44th Canadian Parliament. The writs of election were issued by Governor General Mary Simon on August 15, 2021, when Prime Minist ...

. She is the first openly lesbian and first Jewish woman ever to be elected as a Conservative MP. Upon election of

Pierre Poilievre Pierre Marcel Poilievre ( ; born June 3, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the leader of the Official Opposition since 2022. Poilievre has served as a member of Parliament (MP) ...

as Conservative Leader, Pierre named Lantsman one of two deputy leaders along with Edmonton MP Tim Uppal. Lantsman previously worked as a communications advisor to several cabinet members in the

28th Canadian Ministry The Twenty-Eighth Canadian Ministry was the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that governed Canada from the beginning of the 39th Parliament to the end of the 41st Parliament. Its original members were sworn into the Queen's ...

of Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

. She was a senior advisor to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its chief spokesperson during the 2018 Ontario provincial election. Lantsman was previously the National Vice President of Public Affairs at Enterprise Canada, a strategic communications firm. In 2020, upon the retirement of Peter Kent from Parliament, Lantsman announced her intention to seek the federal Conservative nomination in Thornhill. She defeated the incumbent Progressive Conservative

Member of Provincial Parliament Member of Provincial Parliament is the title given to provincial legislators in two legislatures: * Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada) * Member of Provincial Parliament (Western Cape) In the Western Cape province of South Africa, Member of P ...

, Gila Martow, to become the riding's Conservative candidate on March 17, 2021. She was elected to parliament on September 20, 2021, and was sworn into office on October 28. Since November that year, she has served as the Shadow Minister of Transport in the Opposition Shadow Cabinet of

Erin O'Toole Erin Michael O'Toole (born January 22, 1973) is a Canadian politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Durham since 2012. A member of the Conservative Party, O'Toole served as the party's leader and the leader of the Offici ...

. Lantsman was elected the vice-chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport and Infrastructure.

Early life and education

Lantsman was born in Toronto in 1984 to a Russian Jewish family and raised in Thornhill. Her mother was an accountant and her father was an engineer who worked in the taxi business and ran several pawn shops. She attended a French-immersion program at Langstaff Secondary School in York Region and speaks fluent French in addition to English and Russian. Lantsman has one brother. She attended University of Toronto and graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts. She later completed her graduate studies at the University of Ottawa and the Institute of Corporate Directors education program at the Rotman School of Management.

Career

As an adolescent, Lantsman volunteered for Conservative Party candidates in local elections. During the

2008 Canadian federal election The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on October 14, 2008, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the 39th Canadian Parliament, previous parliament had been dissolved by Governor General of ...

, she was appointed a senior communications advisor, with the party forming a minority government. Thereafter, she was appointed director of communications for the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

under Ministers Lawrence Cannon and John Baird, serving from 2008 to 2011. From 2011 to 2012, she was the director of communications of the Office of the Prime Minister of Canada, and accompanied Prime Minister

on domestic and foreign visits. After a brief stint at The Coca-Cola Company as a senior public affairs advisor, Lantsman returned to government as director of communications for the Ministry of Finance under Joe Oliver. Following the Harper government's loss of the

2015 Canadian federal election The 2015 Canadian federal election held on October 19, 2015, saw the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, win 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister. The election was held to elect m ...

, Lantsman returned to the private sector as a senior director for CIBC Capital Markets. In 2018, Lantsman served as director of communications for Ontario MPP Caroline Mulroney's candidacy for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Following Mulroney's loss, Lantsman joined the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario's campaign for the

2018 Ontario general election The 2018 Ontario general election was held on June 7, 2018, to elect the 124 members of the 42nd Parliament of Ontario. The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, led by Doug Ford, won 76 of the 124 seats in the legislature and formed a majo ...

as its chief spokesperson and

war room A command center (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command for some purpose. While frequently considered to be a military facility, these can be used in many other cases by governments or businesses. ...

director. In this role, she oversaw all press communications and social media releases by the campaign. The election resulted in a

majority government A majority government is a government by one or more governing parties that hold an absolute majority of seats in a legislature. This is as opposed to a minority government, where the largest party in a legislature only has a plurality of seats. ...

for the Progressive Conservatives, the first since 2002 after 16 years of Liberal government in Ontario. Following the election, Lantsman joined Hill+Knowlton Strategies, an international public relations strategy firm, at their Toronto office. In 2020, she joined Enterprise Canada, a strategic public relations consultancy, as its vice president for National Public Affairs. She relinquished her partnership in Enterprise in 2021 to focus on her political candidacy. Since 2019, Lantsman has appeared on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News' '' Power & Politics'' as well as

CTV CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

's '' Power Play'' as a political panelist and has hosted a radio show on CFRB 1010 AM. She has sat on the board of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee, the

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June ...

, Jewish Addiction Community Services (JACS) and the Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto.

Political candidacy

In 2020, Conservative then-Member of Parliament for Thornhill, Peter Kent, announced that he would not seek re-election at the next year's federal election. Kent had represented the electoral district since 2008. The riding has the highest proportion of Jewish residents in Canada at 37%. Lantsman announced her candidacy for the Conservative nomination on November 27, 2020. Her candidacy was endorsed by former Prime Minister

, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, former federal ministers John Baird, Joe Oliver,

, Rona Ambrose, Michelle Rempel Garner and Lisa Raitt, as well as incumbent Ontario provincial ministers Caroline Mulroney, Stephen Lecce, Greg Rickford and Paul Calandra. She also received endorsements from federal and provincial Conservative legislators, including Eric Duncan, Scott Aitchison, Logan Kanapathi,

Stan Cho Stan Cho (born September 14, 1977) () is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 Ontario general election, 2018 provincial election. He represents the riding of Willowdale (provincial electoral ...

Roman Baber Roman Baber (born 1980) is a Russian-Canadian politician who was the Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada), member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for York Centre (provincial electoral district), York Centre from 2018 to 2022. Baber was elect ...

and Vijay Thanigasalam. Lantsman faced the incumbent

for Thornhill, Gila Martow, in the nomination contest. She participated in a series of nomination debates with Martow between December 2020 and March 2021. On April 3, 2021, Lantsman defeated Martow in the nomination election and was certified as the Conservative candidate for Thornhill. She faced Liberal candidate Gary Gladstone in the

on September 20 and, per preliminary results, won the seat with 51.3% of the vote.

44th Parliament (2021–present)

Lantsman was sworn into the

44th Canadian Parliament The 44th Canadian Parliament is the session of the Parliament of Canada which began on 22 November 2021, with the membership of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, having been determined by the results of the 2021 Canadian federal ...

on October 26, 2021. On November 9, she was appointed by

to serve as the Shadow Minister of Transport. On February 16, 2022, in response to a question raised by Lantsman regarding the usage of the Emergencies Act, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau replied to her by stating "Conservative Party members can stand with people who wave swastikas." In response, Lantsman stated "I am a strong Jewish woman and a member of this House and the descendant of Holocaust survivors. I have never been made to feel less except for today when the Prime Minister accused me of standing with swastikas. I think he owes me an apology. I'd like an apology." Trudeau did not respond to Lantsman's request. On February 27, Lantsman was appointed by Candice Bergen to serve in the Conservative Party leadership team as Chair of Outreach on top of her current role as the Shadow Minister of Transport. Following the September

2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election The 2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election was a leadership election held by the Conservative Party of Canada to elect the successor to Erin O'Toole. He was removed on February 2, 2022, as leader by the party's caucus in the ...

, new Opposition Leader

named Lantsman co-Deputy Leader along with Alberta MP Tim Uppal.

Electoral record

Thornhill

Personal life

Lantsman is gay and was married in 2017. She suffers from severe

Crohn's disease Crohn's disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that may affect any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms often include abdominal pain, diarrhea (which may be bloody if inflammation is severe), fever, abdominal distension ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lantsman, Melissa 1984 births Living people Conservative Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Women members of the House of Commons of Canada 21st-century Canadian politicians Jewish Canadian politicians Jewish women politicians 21st-century Canadian women politicians CBC Radio hosts Canadian LGBT Members of Parliament Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent CTV Television Network people Lesbian politicians LGBT broadcasters from Canada LGBT Jews People from Thornhill, Ontario Politicians from Toronto Canadian women radio hosts Coca-Cola people Deputy opposition leaders Women deputy opposition leaders