Diane Finley PC (born October 3, 1957) is a former Canadian politician. From 2006 through 2015, she served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Her ministerial portfolios included Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Minister Responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, and Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. She was a member of the House of Commons of Canada, representing the riding of Haldimand—Norfolk for the Conservative Party from 2004 to 2021. In August 2020, she announced that she would not be running in the 2021 Canadian federal election.[1] She resigned from office on May 11, 2021.
Diane Finley | |
|---|---|
 Finley in May 2017 | |
| Minister of Public Works and Government Services | |
| In office July 15, 2013 – November 4, 2015 | |
| Prime Minister | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Rona Ambrose |
| Succeeded by | Judy Foote |
| Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development[a] | |
| In office October 30, 2008 – July 14, 2013 | |
| Prime Minister | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Monte Solberg |
| Succeeded by | Jason Kenney |
| In office February 2, 2006 – January 3, 2007 | |
| Prime Minister | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Belinda Stronach |
| Succeeded by | Monte Solberg |
| Minister of Citizenship and Immigration | |
| In office January 4, 2007 – October 29, 2008 | |
| Prime Minister | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Monte Solberg |
| Succeeded by | Jason Kenney |
| Conservative Party Caucus Liaison | |
| In office September 25, 2017 – September 2, 2020 | |
| Leader | Andrew Scheer Erin O'Toole |
| Succeeded by | Tim Uppal |
| Member of Parliament for Haldimand—Norfolk | |
| In office June 28, 2004 – May 11, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Bob Speller |
| Succeeded by | Leslyn Lewis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 3, 1957 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | |
| Residence(s) | Simcoe, Ontario, Canada |
| Profession | Businesswoman, corporate executive, management consultant, school administrator |
| Website | dianefinley |
Personal life
editDiane Finley was raised in Port Dover and Charlotteville in Norfolk County, Ontario, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Western Ontario. After graduation, she became the administrator of Western's French Immersion School. She then worked in a series of private and public sector jobs, in a variety of fields. She was named "one of Canada's future leaders" by the Governor-General's Study Conference 2000. As a child, she participated in Girl Guides of Canada youth programs.[2]
Her husband was Doug Finley, a Senator from Ontario and former campaign manager and director of political operations for the Conservative Party of Canada.[3] The pair met while Diane was working as a summer hire at Rolls-Royce where Doug was an executive.[4]
In 2006, Finley announced that she has Graves' disease, a non-life-threatening thyroid condition that causes increased sensitivity to bright lights and forces her to wear tinted glasses.[5]
Political career
editLong involved in politics of the Conservative Party and its predecessors, Finley first ran for public office in the 2004 federal election in the riding of Haldimand—Norfolk. She defeated Bob Speller, a Liberal cabinet minister, by 1,645 votes. After being re-elected in the 2006 election, she was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. An Order in Council transferred authority for Social Development Canada to her as well, and accordingly, she served under the style Minister of Human Resources and Social Development. She was shuffled from the Human Resources and Skills Development Canada to the Citizenship and Immigration Canada portfolio on January 4, 2007. The following year, Finley allegedly received threats from sex industry officials in relation to her support of Bill C-17, which sought to allow immigration officers to deny temporary visas to prospective strippers if they were suspected to be sex trafficking victims. Tim Lambrinos of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada (AEAC) said that "it's not plausible" that any of the AEAC strip clubs were responsible for the threats.[6]
Finley was re-elected in the 2008 election and resumed her former post as Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.[7] She was re-elected in the 2011 election with 50.9% of the vote in her riding.
In March 2015, a parliamentary ethics report on an affair linked to disgraced prime ministerial aide Nigel Wright found that Finley had breached conflict of interest rules in her capacity as minister by diverting funding to a favoured project in Markham whose promoter had close ties to the Conservative Party.[8]
After winning her seat once more in the 2015 federal election, Finley announced that she would be running for the position of interim leader of the Conservative Party, after Stephen Harper's resignation from the post.[9] She was passed over for interim leader and subsequently placed in Rona Ambrose's shadow cabinet.
She was re-elected in the 2019 federal election. On August 23, 2020, she announced that she would not seek re-election in the 2021 federal election. She resigned from the House of Commons on May 11, 2021.[10] Leslyn Lewis was the Conservative candidate elected to succeed Finley the 2021 federal election.[11]
Political views
editFinley has promoted increased private-sector involvement in health services. She was the founder of Canada's largest publicly funded ambulance service company, Canadian Medical Response, and has been active in the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.
Electoral record
edit| 2019 Canadian federal election: Haldimand—Norfolk | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Diane Finley | 28,018 | 46.75 | +2.7 | $71,248.92 | |||
| Liberal | Kim Huffman | 14,704 | 24.54 | -12.1 | $47,529.88 | |||
| New Democratic | Adrienne Roberts | 9,192 | 15.34 | +1.7 | $2,660.65 | |||
| Green | Brooke Martin | 4,878 | 8.14 | +4.8 | none listed | |||
| People's | Bob Forbes | 1,234 | 2.06 | - | $2,959.97 | |||
| Veterans Coalition | Harold Stewart | 1,083 | 1.81 | - | none listed | |||
| Christian Heritage | Lily Eggink | 817 | 1.36 | -0.2 | none listed | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 59,926 | 99.28 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 436 | 0.72 | ||||||
| Turnout | 60,362 | 65.93 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 91,557 | |||||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | +7.4 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[12][13] | ||||||||
| 2015 Canadian federal election: Haldimand—Norfolk | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Diane Finley | 24,714 | 44.14 | -6.80 | $127,788.19 | |||
| Liberal | Joan Mouland | 20,487 | 36.59 | +11.67 | $72,346.01 | |||
| New Democratic | John Harris | 7,625 | 13.62 | -6.36 | $3,656.59 | |||
| Green | Wayne Ettinger | 1,857 | 3.32 | +0.01 | $12,277.23 | |||
| Christian Heritage | David Bylsma | 884 | 1.58 | +0.72 | $7,252.58 | |||
| Independent | Dustin Wakeford | 272 | 0.49 | – | $12,267.19 | |||
| Independent | Leslie Bory | 151 | 0.27 | – | $1,616.53 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 55,990 | 100.00 | $219,180.63 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 312 | 0.55 | ||||||
| Turnout | 56,302 | 68.14 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 82,621 | |||||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | -9.24 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[14][15] | ||||||||
| 2011 Canadian federal election: Haldimand—Norfolk | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Diane Finley | 25,655 | 50.94 | +10.11 | – | |||
| Liberal | Bob Speller | 12,549 | 24.92 | -7.43 | – | |||
| New Democratic | Ian Nichols | 10,062 | 19.98 | +8.45 | – | |||
| Green | Anne Faulkner | 1,665 | 3.31 | -0.93 | – | |||
| Christian Heritage | Steven Elgersma | 435 | 0.86 | -0.18 | – | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 50,366 | 100.0 | 4.1 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 256 | 0.51 | – | |||||
| Turnout | 50,622 | 63.49 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 79,729 | – | – | |||||
Source: [1]
| 2008 Canadian federal election: Haldimand—Norfolk | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Conservative | Diane Finley | 19,657 | 40.83 | -7.5 | $67,583 | |||
| Liberal | Eric Hoskins | 15,577 | 32.35 | -1.9 | $72,913 | |||
| New Democratic | Ian Nichols | 5,549 | 11.53 | -1.3 | $5,509 | |||
| Independent | Gary McHale | 4,821 | 10.01 | – | $22,798 | |||
| Green | Stephana Johnston | 2,041 | 4.24 | +0.7 | $2,581 | |||
| Christian Heritage | Steven Elgersma | 501 | 1.04 | 0.0 | ||||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 48,146 | 100 | $85,391 | |||||
| Majority | 4,080 | 8.48 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 248 | 0.51 | ||||||
| Turnout | 48,394 | |||||||
| 2006 Canadian federal election: Haldimand—Norfolk | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Conservative | Diane Finley | 25,885 | 48.33 | +6.1 | ||||
| Liberal | Bob Speller | 18,363 | 34.29 | -4.5 | ||||
| New Democratic | Valya Roberts | 6,858 | 12.80 | -1.6 | ||||
| Green | Carolyn Van Nort | 1,894 | 3.54 | +0.1 | ||||
| Christian Heritage | Steven Elgersma | 559 | 1.04 | -0.2 | ||||
| Turnout | 53,559 | |||||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | +5.3 | ||||||
| 2004 Canadian federal election: Haldimand—Norfolk | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Conservative | Diane Finley | 20,981 | 42.2 | -6.2 | ||||
| Liberal | Bob Speller | 19,336 | 38.8 | -7.2 | ||||
| New Democratic | Carrie Sinkowski | 7,143 | 14.4 | +9.8 | ||||
| Green | Colin Jones | 1,703 | 3.4 | |||||
| Christian Heritage | Steven Elgersma | 617 | 1.2 | |||||
| Majority | 1,645 | 3.3 | ||||||
| Turnout | 49,780 | 63.3 | ||||||
| Conservative gain from Liberal | Swing | +1.0 | ||||||
References
edit- ^ "Longtime Conservative MP Diane Finley says she's not running in the next election". Global News. Canadian Press. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
- ^ "Girl Guides hit the Hill – Macleans.ca". Macleans.ca. March 19, 2010. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
- ^ Linda Diebel (September 6, 2008). "Harper's 'political pit bull'". Toronto Star. Retrieved September 9, 2008.
- ^ "Senator Doug Finley dies from cancer at age 66".
- ^ Immigration file a revolving door Toronto Star 2007-01-05, Phinjo Gombu
- ^ "Immigration minister threatened over strippers legislation". Postmedia News. April 24, 2008. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
- ^ About Diane Finley Archived January 10, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, official page. Accessed January 19, 2012.
- ^ "Ethics report finds Tory minister Diane Finley broke conflict-of-interest rules".
- ^ The Canadian Press (October 22, 2015). "Diane Finley intends to run for interim Conservative leader". CTV News. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
- ^ "Resignation of Member" (PDF). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Canada: House of Commons of Canada. May 11, 2021. p. 7071.
- ^ "MP Diane Finley resigns from House of Commons". simcoereformer. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
- ^ "List of confirmed candidates". Elections Canada. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
- ^ "Official Voting Results". Elections Canada. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
- ^ Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for Haldimand—Norfolk, 30 September 2015
- ^ Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates
- ^ Office became known as "Minister of Human Resources and Social Development" from 2006 to 2007.