Preceded by Warren Allmand Profession Non-profit executive Succeeded by Isabelle Morin Name Marlene Jennings | Political party Liberal Party Liberal Party of Canada Residence Montreal Children Anne-Darla Del Negro | |
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Born November 10, 1951 (age 72)
Longueuil, Quebec ( 1951-11-10 ) Role Member of the Canadian House of Commons Spouse Luciano Del Negro (m. 1974) Office Member of the Canadian House of Commons since 1997 Education Concordia University (1990), Universite du Quebec a Montreal (1986), McGill University | ||
Member of parliament marlene jennings
Marlene Jennings, PC, MP (born November 10, 1951) is a former Canadian politician. She was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada in the Canadian House of Commons, and represented the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine from 1997 to 2011.
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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, the former Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada, and a former Member of Parliament. 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 in the history of Confederation. She was also one of the few parliamentarians with a physical disability, having become temporarily partially blind due to an illness in early 2010; she used visual aids and a white cane until late 2011. Over 7 surgical procedures successfully restored her vision.
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 Canadian federal election, 2011, 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 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 2 years (2012 & 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
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.