Janice Laking

Who is Janice Laking?

Janice Laking, née McCuaig, is a retired Canadian politician, who served as mayor of Barrie, Ontario from 1988 to 2000.

The daughter of former Simcoe North federal Member of Parliament Duncan Fletcher McCuaig, Laking was first elected to Barrie City Council in 1972. She mounted an unsuccessful run for the mayoralty in 1978, but was reelected to a council seat in 1980 and served for another eight years before being elected mayor in 1988. She was also the Liberal candidate for Simcoe Centre in the 1993 federal election, losing by a margin of 123 votes to Reform Party candidate Ed Harper. This was the only riding in the entire province not won by a Liberal in that election, and media generally credited Harper's victory to the fact that Laking was such a popular mayor that the voters didn't want her to leave the mayor's chair.

She was defeated by Jim Perri in 2000, and subsequently served as a citizenship judge. She is also an honorary colonel of CFB Borden's 16 Wing unit.