Marlene Jennings

Marlene Jennings  (born November 10, 1951) is a former Canadian politician. She was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada in the House of Commons of Canada, and represented the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine from 1997 to 2011.

Jennings was born in Longueuil, Quebec. She is a former lawyer and senior public servant. She is the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Cooperation and the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada. From 2004 to October 2005, she was Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister with special emphasis on Canada-U.S. relations.

Jennings was the first Black woman from Quebec to be elected to Parliament. She was also one of the few parliamentarians with a physical disability, having become partially blind due to an illness in early 2010; she used visual aids and a white cane until late 2011. Over seven surgical procedures successfully restored her vision.

She is also a past member of the Girl Guides of Canada.

Electoral history

Jennings succeeded Warren Allmand, the MP for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, in the reorganized riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine upon its creation in 1997. She was elected five times in the riding with consistent margins of between 10,000 and 20,000 votes, and her riding was considered one of the safest Liberal seats in the country. However, she fell to Quebec's "orange wave" in the 2011 Canadian federal election, losing her seat to Isabelle Morin of the NDP.

Later life and career

In January 2012, Jennings revealed to the newspaper La Presse that she had NOT joined the CAQ, a Quebec provincial political party. In a February 2012 Facebook post, Jennings explained that she had declined an offer to run for the party as she had never had a "passion" for provincial politics. For close to two years (2012 and 2013) she was the Executive Director of the Montreal YMHA. She had let her Liberal Party of Canada party membership lapse but re-joined in 2014.

Source: Elections Canada

|align="left" colspan=2|Liberal hold
|align="right"|Swing
|align="right"| +1.0%
|align="right"|

|align="left" colspan=2|Liberal hold
|align="right"|Swing
|align="right"| -3.85%
|align="right"|

			
Note: Conservative vote is compared to the total of the Canadian Alliance vote and Progressive Conservative vote in 2000 election.

Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to the Reform vote in 1997 election.

References

External links
Official website
Official Youtube Channel
Official Twitter Site
Facebook Page

Category:1951 births
Category:Anglophone Quebec people
Category:Black Canadian politicians
Category:Women members of the House of Commons of Canada
Category:Lawyers in Quebec
Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs
Category:Living people
Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec
Category:People from Longueuil
Category:Women in Quebec politics
Category:Blind politicians
Category:Université du Québec à Montréal alumni
Category:Blind people from Canada
Category:Canadian women lawyers
Category:Black Canadian lawyers
Category:Blind lawyers
Category:Canadian politicians with physical disabilities
Category:Black Canadian women
Category:20th-century Canadian lawyers
Category:21st-century Canadian politicians
Category:21st-century Canadian women politicians