Matthew Green (born September 10, 1980) is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of

Hamilton Centre Hamilton Centre (french: Hamilton-Centre) is a federal electoral district in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. History It was created in 2003 from parts of Hamilton East, Hamil ...

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 Commo ...

in the

2019 Canadian federal election The 2019 Canadian federal election was held on October 21, 2019. Members of the House of Commons were elected to the 43rd Canadian Parliament. In keeping with the maximum four-year term under a 2007 amendment to the ''Canada Elections Act'', ...

, and re-elected in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Early life

Green grew up in Hamilton, and received a degree in political science from

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadi ...

. He later attended

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 ...

in Hamilton.

Career

First elected to the Hamilton City Council in 2014, he led the way for the city to become the first in Ontario to license and regulate

payday lending A payday loan (also called a payday advance, salary loan, payroll loan, small dollar loan, short term, or cash advance loan) is a short-term unsecured loan, often characterized by high interest rates. The term "payday" in payday loan refers to ...

. In 2018, he became the executive director of the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI), a non-profit organization that promotes racial equality. Green has stated that the example set by

Lincoln Alexander Lincoln MacCauley Alexander (January 21, 1922 – October 19, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer who became the first Black Canadian member of Parliament in the House of Commons, the first Black federal Cabinet Minister (as federal Minister of Labo ...

, the first

Black Canadian Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though ...

MP and a former Hamilton politician, helped inspire him to get into politics. Green joined the NDP in 2017 after being inspired by

Jagmeet Singh Jagmeet Singh Jimmy Dhaliwal ( ; born January 2, 1979) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) since 2017. Singh has sat as the member of Parliament (MP) for Burnaby South since 2019.

's stance against racial profiling. Prior to his election to the House of Commons, he was the first Black Canadian to serve on the

Hamilton City Council Hamilton City Council is the governing body of the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Since 21 November 1960, Council has met at Hamilton City Hall at 71 Main Street West. The current council consists of the mayor In many countries, a mayor i ...

, where he represented Ward 3 from 2014 to 2018. Ideologically, Green identifies as a "

Stanley Knowles Stanley Howard Knowles (June 18, 1908 – June 9, 1997) was a Canadian parliamentarian. Knowles represented the riding of Winnipeg North Centre from 1942 to 1958 on behalf of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and again from 1 ...

New Democrat".

In 43rd Canadian Parliament

One of Green's claims to fame is that he is the first Black Canadian to represent Hamilton in Parliament since

. As an MP, Green has been an outspoken opponent of

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, but is not limited to ...

, and has endorsed a nationwide ban on the use of

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ...

In 44th Canadian Parliament

Green was re-elected on 20 September 2021 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 Min ...

to a

hung parliament A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisla ...

, its

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, having been determined by the results of the 2021 federal election held on 20 September. Parl ...

. In a July 2021 interview with

American socialist American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

magazine ''Jacobin'', given jointly with his NDP colleague

Leah Gazan Leah Gazan (born April 8, 1972) is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of Winnipeg Centre in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2019 Canadian federal election. Early life Leah Gazan was born in Thompson, Manitob ...

, Green endorsed a national

wealth tax A wealth tax (also called a capital tax or equity tax) is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and pension plans, ownershi ...

. In March 2022, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh nominated Green to serve on the

Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency Special or specials may refer to: Policing * Specials, Ulster Special Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force * Specials, Special Constable, an auxiliary, volunteer, or temporary; police worker or police officer Literature * ''Specia ...

which had the mission to investigate the

Freedom Convoy A series of protests and blockades in Canada against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, called the Freedom Convoy (french: Convoi de la liberté, links=no) by organizers, began in early 2022. The initial convoy movement was created t ...

On the DECD Committee

Early in the life of the DECD committee, Green said that committee members "have a 'responsibility' to work together" in light of the disagreement of the

Conservative 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 ...

Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...

over the constitution of the committee. It consisted of seven MPs and four senators. On 6 March 2022 co-chair Green was "interested in looking at the actions of police (or the lack of them), the role played by 'dark money' raised through" the

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the be ...

and

GiveSendGo GiveSendGo is a Christian crowdfunding website. It has attracted controversy for facilitating the funding of far-right, neo-Nazi, alt-right, and white supremacist activists and hate groups. The website was founded in 2014 to fundraise "for miss ...

crowdfunding platforms, even though the latter issue had been thoroughly debunked three days earlier when the

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

committee interviewed two executives from GoFundMe who testified that 86 per cent of the donors to the original GoFundMe campaign were Canadian, and 88 per cent of the donated funds to the original campaign were from Canadians.

Electoral record

, - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" !rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , Candidate !colspan="3" style="text-align:center;" , Popular vote !rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , Expenditures , - style="background-color:#fcfcfc;" , style="text-align:center;" , Votes , style="text-align:center;" , % , style="text-align:center;" , ±% , - , style="background-color:#7bbd55;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Matthew Green , style="text-align:right;" , 2,852 , style="text-align:right;" , 40.72% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , $31,380.20 , - , style="background-color:#FF0000;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Ralph Agostino , style="text-align:right;" , 1,229 , style="text-align:right;" , 17.55% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , $22,900.91 , - , style="background-color:#de292b;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Drina Omazic , style="text-align:right;" , 825 , style="text-align:right;" , 11.78% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , $27,000.76 , - , style="background-color:#ef8b42;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Mark DiMillo , style="text-align:right;" , 525 , style="text-align:right;" , 7.50% , style="text-align:right;" , −2.63% , style="text-align:right;" , n/a¹ , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Sean Gibson , style="text-align:right;" , 361 , style="text-align:right;" , 5.15% , style="text-align:right;" , −8.53% , style="text-align:right;" , n/a¹ , - , style="background-color:#f73e1e;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Tim Simmons , style="text-align:right;" , 334 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.77% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , $15,087.14 , - , style="background-color:#062955;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Bob Assadourian , style="text-align:right;" , 330 , style="text-align:right;" , 4.71% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , $26,412.29 , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Brian Kelly , style="text-align:right;" , 172 , style="text-align:right;" , 2.46% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , $5,670.73 , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Maria Anastasiou , style="text-align:right;" , 93 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.33% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , n/a¹ , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Byron Wayne Millette , style="text-align:right;" , 73 , style="text-align:right;" , 1.04% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , n/a¹ , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Eva John , style="text-align:right;" , 55 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.79% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , n/a¹ , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Carlos Pinho , style="text-align:right;" , 51 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.73% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , n/a¹ , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Victor Mejia , style="text-align:right;" , 42 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.60% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , n/a¹ , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Bernie Szajkowski , style="text-align:right;" , 41 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.59% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , $0 , - , style="background-color:#ffffff;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Jol Hess , style="text-align:right;" , 21 , style="text-align:right;" , 0.30% , style="text-align:right;" , – , style="text-align:right;" , n/a¹ , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Total votes , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 7,113 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 29.59% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , −1.41 , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" colspan="2" , Registered voters , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 24,035 , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , 100% , style="text-align:right;background-color:#FFFFFF;" , , style="text-align:right;" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="6" , ¹ These candidates did not submit official Financial Statements and are, therefore, ineligible to run in the
2018 Municipal election
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:''
City of Hamilton, "Nominated Candidates"

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Matthew Living people New Democratic Party MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario 21st-century Canadian politicians Hamilton, Ontario city councillors Black Canadian politicians 1980 births Canadian socialists