Shelley Wark-Martyn (born January 11, 1963) is a former

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

from

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

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. She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995. She represented the riding of Port Arthur. She served as a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae. Almost two decades later, she served as president of the

Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party (french: Parti libéral de l'Alberta) is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1905, it is the oldest active political party in Alberta and was the dominant political party until the 1921 election ...

stepping down in order to run in Calgary-Currie as a Liberal candidate in the 2015 provincial election.

Background

Wark-Martyn was a social worker and registered nurse before entering political life. In 1987 she received an injury in the workplace that ended her nursing career. She received a small disability pension from the Worker's Compensation Board. She is married to Kelly with whom she has two children, Kurtis and Erika.

Provincial politics

She was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1990 provincial election, defeating incumbent

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Taras Kozyra Taras Kozyra (born September 26, 1941) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1990. Background Kozrya moved to Canada at a young age, and was educated at the Univ ...

by 1,034 votes in the

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

riding of Port Arthur. The NDP won a majority government and Wark-Martyn was appointed as Rae's first Minister of Revenue on October 1, 1990. In November, Wark-Martyn introduced a bill to ensure that GST would not be stacked on top of provincial tax. In December, she was featured as part of "Women of the Year" on the cover of Chatelaine magazine along with ten other women cabinet ministers. During her tenure as Revenue minister she dealt with such issues as a proposed market value assessment property tax system for

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, giving tax breaks to border communities to stem the flow of cross border shoppers and collecting tax on goods that shoppers bring back across the border. She also studied a possible harmonization of the

GST GST may refer to: Taxes * General sales tax * Goods and Services Tax, the name for the value-added tax in several jurisdictions: ** Goods and services tax (Australia) ** Goods and Services Tax (Canada) ** Goods and Services Tax (Hong Kong) **G ...

with provincial sales tax. In the latter case, this wasn't adopted until 2010. In February 1993, Bob Rae drastically reduced the size of his cabinet. The Revenue Minister position was abolished and Wark-Martyn was transferred to Minister without portfolio responsible for Education and Training, assisting Education Minister

Dave Cooke Dave Cooke (born August 1, 1952) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was an NDP member of the provincial legislature from 1977 to 1997, and was a senior cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae. Background Cooke was born in Wind ...

. On June 17, 1993, she was reassigned as a minister without portfolio responsible for health, assisting

Health Minister A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

Ruth Grier. In early 1995, Wark-Martyn announced that

Lakehead University Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, gradua ...

and

Confederation College Confederation College is a provincially funded college of applied arts and technology in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1967, and has campuses in Dryden, Fort Frances, Greenstone, Kenora, Marathon, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake a ...

would be receiving almost one million dollars in grants to develop programs and services to aboriginal people. The NDP were defeated in the provincial election of 1995, and Wark-Martyn lost her seat to Liberal

Michael Gravelle Michael Gravelle (born January 23, 1949) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who represented the riding of Thunder Bay—Superior North from 1995 to 2022 (known as Port Arthur fro ...

by almost 7,000 votes.

Cabinet positions

Later life

In 1997 she was elected to the council of Oliver Township in the metro area of Thunder Bay in 1997. In 1999, she was appointed to the Capital Regional Health Board. In 2004, Wark-Martyn began working in Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

for Bayshore Home Health, a home-delivery health-care service. Before this, she had worked in sales marketing for ''The Pampered Chef''. She became involved in the

, eventually running for the presidency of the party and winning that position in May 2014. She was the party's candidate for the riding of Calgary-Currie in the 2015 provincial election, placing fourth with 7.7% of the vote.

References

Notes

Citations

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wark-Martyn, Shelley 1963 births Alberta Liberal Party candidates in Alberta provincial elections Canadian social workers Living people Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs Thunder Bay city councillors Members of the Executive Council of Ontario Women government ministers of Canada Women MPPs in Ontario Women municipal councillors in Canada