Liz Sandals (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

MacNaughton; born ) 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 was a Liberal 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 ...

from 2003 to 2018 who represented the ridings of Guelph—Wellington and

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as The Royal City, it is roughly east of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Ontario Highway 6, ...

. She served in cabinet as the President of the Treasury Board until January 17, 2018 and previously served for three years as Minister of Education in the government of

Kathleen Wynne Kathleen O'Day Wynne ( ; born May 21, 1953) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. She was Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario), member of provinci ...

Background

Sandals was born and raised in the

area as Liz MacNaughton. Her father, Earl MacNaughton was the founding dean of the College of Physics at the University of Guelph. She graduated from Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute in 1966, and received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree from the

University of Guelph The University of Guelph (abbreviated U of G) is a comprehensive Public university, public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College (1874), the MacDonald I ...

in 1969 as well as a Master of Mathematics degree from the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...

in 1971. She taught computer science at the University of Guelph. Sandals lives in Guelph with her husband David where they raised two children.

Politics

School board

Sandals was elected to her local public school board in 1988, and was re-elected four times. From 1998 to 2002, she served as president of the ''Ontario Public School Boards Association''. Sandals was the recipient of the first ''Outstanding Contribution to Education Award'', granted by the ''Ontario Principals' Council''.

Provincial politics

In 2003, she ran for the Ontario Liberal Party nomination in the riding of Guelph, and defeated two long-time Liberals. While she was a past supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party and worked for the 1995 campaign of rival Tory MPP Brenda Elliott, Sandals defeated Elliott in the Ontario provincial election of 2003 by 2,872 votes in the riding of Guelph—Wellington. During the 2003-2007 session she served as parliamentary assistant for several portfolios including

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

. After being re-elected in 2007 in the redistributed riding of

, she was again appointed as parliamentary assistant to portfolios including education and transportation. She was re-elected again in the 2011 election. On February 11, 2013, Sandals was appointed as the Minister of Education by Premier Kathleen Wynne. She was re-elected in

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 ...

. On June 13, 2016, she was appointed as President of the Treasury Board. As Minister of Education, Sandals oversaw the transition to a new collective bargaining system in the education system in Ontario. This new 2-tier collective bargaining structure resulted in new teacher contracts being signed with all of the major teachers' unions in 2015. Sandals also oversaw changes to the sex education curriculum, the first update to the curriculum since the late 1990s. On October 6, 2017, she announced that she would not seek re-election in 2018.

Cabinet positions

Electoral record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandals, Liz 1947 births 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario 21st-century Canadian women politicians Living people Ontario Liberal Party MPPs Members of the Executive Council of Ontario People from Guelph University of Waterloo alumni Academic staff of the University of Guelph University of Guelph alumni Women government ministers of Canada Women MPPs in Ontario