Christopher Joseph Bittle (born February 17, 1979) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Liberal politician who was elected to represent the riding of St. Catharines in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 federal election. He currently serves as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, sitting on the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. He previously served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport and as Deputy House Leader of the Government. Bittle is the youngest MP to hold the Deputy House Leader position in the House of Commons.

Early life and career

Born in Niagara Falls, Bittle graduated from St. Paul Catholic Secondary School before attending Queen's University where he graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree. He then attended law school at the University of Windsor where he received a Bachelor of Laws. Before he was elected Member of Parliament, he worked at Lancaster, Brooks and Welch LLP, as a civil litigator focusing in matters like commercial disputes, real state litigation defamation, and landlord tenant matters. In addition to practicing law Bittle also served as Chair of Quest Community Health Centre, a not-for-profit Community Health Centre in St. Catharines. Bittle also worked as an instructor in the Department of Continuing Education at Niagara College and as seminar leader at Brock University.

Political career

Bittle was elected as a first time Member of Parliament in October 2015. He received 24,870 votes and defeated incumbent Rick Dykstra. In September 2017, Bittle was appointed Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, the youngest Member of Parliament to hold that position. In December 2019, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, where he worked alongside Minister Marc Garneau and Minister Omar Alghabra to invest in public transit and particularly on safe travel during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In March 2021, Bittle was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Jonathan Wilkinson. Bittle is also a member of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. Bittle was re-elected as a Member of Parliament in the 2021 Canadian federal election but with a decreased share of the vote. In August 2022 Bittle apologized to

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

law professor Michael Geist for accusing Geist of racism during a twitter dispute.

Electoral record

References

External links

Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bittle, Chris 1979 births Living people Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Lawyers in Ontario People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Politicians from St. Catharines Queen's University at Kingston alumni University of Windsor alumni University of Windsor Faculty of Law alumni 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada