Peggy Nash

Who is Peggy Nash?

Peggy A. Nash is a Canadian labour official and politician from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for the Parkdale—High Park electoral district in Toronto, and was the Official Opposition's Finance Critic, in Canada's 41st parliament. Before becoming a parliamentarian, she worked as a labour official at the Canadian Auto Workers union, where she became the first female to negotiate a major contract with one of the Detroit-based automobile corporations in 2005. She was first elected as the MP for Parkdale—High Park in the 2006 federal election. In the 2008 federal election, she was defeated in her re-election bid by Liberal candidate Gerard Kennedy. After her defeat, Nash returned to her previous job as a labour official with the CAW. She was elected to a two-year term as the federal NDP's President on August 15, 2009, at the party's convention in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She ran for parliament again in the 2011 federal election, and defeated Kennedy, to regain her former seat in the Canadian House of Commons.

She became a candidate to replace the late Jack Layton as leader of the federal NDP in October 2011, but was ultimately unsuccessful in her bid, placing fourth. In April 2012, she was reappointed as the NDP's Finance Critic.