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

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

from

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. She was a

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

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 1990 to 1995. She represented the riding of Port Arthur. She served as a

cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ' prime minister', ' p ...

in the government of

Bob Rae Robert Keith Rae (born August 2, 1948) is a Canadian diplomat and former politician who is the current Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations since 2020. He previously served as the 21st premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, leader of the ...

. Almost two decades later, she served as president of the

Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party () 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, with the first three provincial ...

stepping down in order to run in

Calgary-Currie Calgary-Currie is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was created in 1971 and is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. The district ...

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 Taras Kozyra by 1,034 votes in the

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on p ...

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 ''Chatelaine'' is an English-language Canadian women's magazine which covers topics from food, style and home décor to politics, health and relationships. ''Chatelaine'' and its French-language version, ''Châtelaine'', are published by St. J ...

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 ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, 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 with provincial sales tax. In the latter case, this wasn't adopted until 2010. In February 1993,

drastically reduced the size of his cabinet. The Revenue Minister position was abolished and Wark-Martyn was transferred to

Minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is a government minister without specific responsibility as head of a government department. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authorit ...

responsible for Education and Training, assisting

Education Minister An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

Dave Cooke Dave Cooke (born August 1, 1952) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was an Ontario New Democratic Party, NDP member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, provincial legislature from 1977 to 1997, and was a senior cabinet minister i ...

. 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 spending and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental heal ...

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 ...

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 fr ...

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 Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

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

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 Ontario 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario 20th-century Canadian women politicians 20th-century Canadian municipal councillors