France Gélinas is a politician in

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. She is a New Democratic member of the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

who was elected in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

. She represents the riding of Nickel Belt.

Background

Gélinas was born and raised in

Shawinigan Shawinigan (; ) is a city located on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie area in Quebec, Canada. It had a population of 49,620 as of the 2021 Canadian census. Shawinigan is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. She is trained as a

physiotherapist Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is a healthcare profession, as well as the care provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through patient education, physical intervention, disease preventio ...

and has been the executive director of the Community Health Centre of Sudbury, on the

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual Un ...

's Citizens' Advisory Panel, served as president of the Francophone Reference Group of the

Northern Ontario School of Medicine Northern Ontario School of Medicine University (NOSM University; , ''Université ÉMNO'') is a public medical university in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is mandated both to educate doctors and to contribute to care in Northern Ontario's ...

. She lives in the Naughton neighbourhood of Sudbury with her family.

Politics

She ran in the 2007 provincial election as the New Democratic candidate in the riding of Nickel Belt. She defeated Liberal candidate Ron Dupuis by 2,762 votes. She was re-elected in the

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

elections, as well as the 2018 and 2022 provincial elections. In May 2008, she joined caucus colleagues Michael Prue and

Peter Tabuns Peter Charles Tabuns (born October 3, 1951) is a Canadian politician who served as the interim leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party and the Leader of the Official Opposition (Ontario), leader of the Official Opposition from 2022 to 2023. ...

in calling on the provincial government to crack down on private hydroelectricity marketers. She has been an outspoken critic of competitive bidding in the province's

home care Homecare (home care, in-home care, care at home), also known as domiciliary care, personal care, community care, or social care, is health care or supportive care provided in the individual home where the patient or client is living, generally focu ...

services, and of layoffs affecting nurses in provincial hospitals. Following the announcement of Howard Hampton's retirement as leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, there was some speculation in Sudbury's local media that Gélinas might join the leadership campaign. However, she indicated on June 16, 2008 that as a relatively new MPP, she did not feel that she was ready to become a leadership candidate. She later endorsed Gilles Bisson for the leadership, and supported the eventual winner,

Andrea Horwath Andrea Lynn Horwath (; born October 24, 1962) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 58th List of mayors of Hamilton, Ontario, mayor of Hamilton since 2022. Horwath served as the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) from 200 ...

, on the final ballot at the convention. In 2009, Gélinas introduced the Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating bill, a

private member's bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in wh ...

which would mandate the provision of nutritional and

calorie The calorie is a unit of energy that originated from the caloric theory of heat. The large calorie, food calorie, dietary calorie, kilocalorie, or kilogram calorie is defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one liter o ...

information on restaurant menus. In 2011, she introduced a private member's bill to have the provincial Commissioner of French Language Services report to the full Legislative Assembly of Ontario, rather than exclusively to the Minister of Francophone Affairs. In 2014 she was re-elected with 62.66% of the vote, the highest percent of any MPP in Ontario that year. In 2015, Gélinas introduced a private member's bill to mandate the creation of a fully independent French-language university in Ontario. She is currently the party's critic for Health and Long-Term Care, and francophone affairs in the NDP's shadow cabinet. She was re-elected at the 2022 Ontario general election. As of August 11, 2024, she serves as the Official Opposition's critic for Health.

Electoral record

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gelinas, France Franco-Ontarian people Living people Ontario New Democratic Party MPPs Politicians from Greater Sudbury Canadian physiotherapists Women MPPs in Ontario 21st-century Canadian women politicians People from Shawinigan Politicians from Mauricie Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario