Joyce Savoline

Who is Joyce Savoline?

Joyce Savoline is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the electoral district of Burlington for the Progressive Conservatives. She first won the seat in a by-election on February 8, 2007.

Savoline previously served as chair of the Regional Municipality of Halton from her original appointment in 1994 until her retirement in 2006. In 2000, as a result of changes to the Ontario Municipal Act, Savoline became the first person to be directly elected to that position by the voters of Halton. She was reelected in 2003.

Following her departure from municipal office, Joyce sought the Progressive Conservative nomination to replace Cam Jackson as Member of Provincial Parliament from Burlington, after Jackson resigned to successfully run for mayor. At the local party's nomination meeting on December 14, 2006, she narrowly defeated former Miss Canada Blair Lancaster, 251 votes to 205. Brad Reaume, a former journalist and assistant to Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh, was also a candidate.

In the ensuing byelection, Savoline faced several opponents, but her closest competition was Ontario Liberal Party candidate Joan Lougheed, a former long-time Burlington city councillor who had narrowly lost to Jackson in the Burlington mayoral race the previous fall. Ultimately Savoline defeated Lougheed with 11,143 votes to her 9,365 according to unofficial election night tallies.