Tim Louis (born 1969) is a Canadian

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 ...

politician and musician first elected as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

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 ...

to represent the federal riding

Kitchener—Conestoga Kitchener—Conestoga (formerly known as Kitchener—Wilmot—Wellesley—Woolwich) is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. Its pop ...

during the

2019 Canadian federal election The 2019 Canadian federal election was held on October 21, 2019. Member of Parliament (Canada), Members of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons were elected to the 43rd Canadian Parliament. In keeping with the Fixed election dates in ...

, defeating incumbent

Harold Albrecht Harold Glenn Albrecht (born October 15, 1949 in Kitchener, Ontario) was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Conservative Party of Canada in the riding of Kitchener—Conestoga from 2006 until 2019. He defeated the incumbent Liberal MP, Lynn M ...

Music

Born in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, Louis is a jazz singer and pianist. He began playing the piano at five, eventually studying and graduating in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in music from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, where he studied under jazz pianist

Kenny Barron Kenny Barron (born June 9, 1943) is an American jazz pianist, who has appeared on hundreds of recordings as leader and sideman and is considered one of the most influential mainstream jazz pianists since the bebop era. Biography Born in Philadel ...

. After graduation Louis pursued further study in elementary education and, at the same time, a music career, playing with an Italian wedding band and a touring rock and roll band, Soul Engines, that opened for bands including

Hootie and the Blowfish Hootie & the Blowfish are an American soft rock band that were formed in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1986. The band's lineup for most of its existence has been the quartet of Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber, and Jim Sonefeld. The band ...

but whose debut album produced by

Teo Macero Attilio Joseph "Teo" Macero (October 30, 1925 – February 19, 2008) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and record producer. He was a producer at Columbia Records for twenty years. Macero produced Miles Davis' '' Bitches Brew'', and ...

was scuttled when its independent label folded. Louis then relocated to his future spouse's native Kitchener, in

994 Year 994 ( CMXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * September 15 – Battle of the Orontes: Fatimid forces, under Turkish gener ...

and married on September 21, 1995. He toured with Canadian

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artists including

Lace Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is divided into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...

and

Jamie Warren Jamie Warren (born April 8, 1961) is a country music singer-songwriter, and the most awarded independent male artist in the Canadian country music industry. Biography Jamie Warren took piano lessons when he was 5 years old, and guitar lessons at ...

, with whom he won a 2002

SOCAN The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a Canadian performance rights organization that represents the performing rights of more than 135,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. The organization collects ...

Songwriter of the Year award for the single Sunny Day in the Park, and later recorded a series of jazz albums including Til it be Tomorrow (2006), Untrue (2009), Snowflakes in Bloom (2010), Snapshots (2012), and Bittersweet (2019). Between 2012 and 2019 Louis hosted a jazz radio program, Tim's Jazz Sessions, on

Centre Wellington Centre Wellington is a township in south-central Ontario, Canada, located in Wellington County. The primary communities are Elora and Fergus. The area is agricultural but also includes industries such as manufacturing. In the Canada 2016 Cens ...

station CICW-FM, based on which he also developed two pilot television episodes.

Politics

Tim Louis 42nd Election Kitchener Consestoga Chamber of Commerce Debate

In 2015, Louis ran unsuccessfully against

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 i ...

incumbent

, who had held the seat since 2006. During the following election, in 2019, Louis unseated Albrecht, but was not confirmed as the winner in his electoral district until the next morning. Clerical errors in five polls prevented them from being opened and counted for over 12 hours. He previously ran for the seat in 2015, losing to Albrecht. Louis told CBC News that based his victory in 2019 from a greater understanding of his riding particularity the townships in the riding compared to 2015 and cited issues such as affordability,

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, and health care. He was re-elected to a second term in 2021. Since his election, Louis has served on numerous parliamentary committees, including the COVID-19 Pandemic, Canadian Heritage, and Agriculture and Afri-Food committees.

Electoral record

References

External links

* 1969 births Living people Canadian jazz musicians Liberal Party of Canada MPs Rutgers University alumni Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario American emigrants to Canada Musicians from Kitchener, Ontario 21st-century Canadian politicians 21st-century Canadian male musicians {{Liberal-Ontario-MP-stub