Wikipedia

Dipika Damerla

Dipika Damerla is a Canadian politician in Mississauga, Ontario. She is the current Mississauga City Councillor for Ward 7, the neighbourhood of Cooksville, since her swearing-in on December 3, 2018.[1][2] Previously, Damerla was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville from 2011 to 2018. She served as Minister of Seniors Affairs in the Cabinet of Premier Kathleen Wynne. On March 7, 2024, Damerla Announced that she would be seeking to be elected Mayor of Mississauga.[3] She placed third with 19.4%, losing to Carolyn Parrish.[4]

Dipika Damerla
Mississauga City Councillor
Incumbent
Assumed office
December 3, 2018[1]
Preceded byNando Iannica
ConstituencyWard 7 (Cooksville)
Minister of Seniors Affairs
In office
June 13, 2016 – June 28, 2018
PremierKathleen Wynne
Preceded byMario Sergio
Succeeded byRaymond Cho
Associate Minister for Long-Term Care and Wellness
In office
June 24, 2014 – June 13, 2016
PremierKathleen Wynne
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament
for Mississauga East—Cooksville
In office
October 6, 2011 – June 7, 2018
Preceded byPeter Fonseca
Succeeded byKaleed Rasheed
Personal details
BornHyderabad, Telangana, India
Political partyIndependent[a]
Other political
affiliations		Liberal
Children1
Alma materUniversity of Toronto
Websitedipikaformayor.ca

Background

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Damerla was born in a Telugu-speaking family in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh (present day Telangana), India. After emigrating to Canada she earned her MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She worked in corporate banking at the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia. Prior to her first election to the Ontario Legislature she was Senior Policy Advisor to Ontario's Minister of Economic Development and Trade. She lives in Mississauga with her daughter, Sharmeila.[5]

Provincial politics

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Damerla is a member of the Ontario Liberal Party. She won a tough 2011 nomination race to be the Liberal candidate for Mississauga East—Cooksville, beating Nancy Fonseca (the sister of previous Mississauga East—Cooksville MPP Peter Fonseca).[6] She beat her nearest rival, Progressive Conservative Zoran Churchin by 4,238 votes in the 2011 provincial election.[7][8]

In November 2011, she was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure.[9] In April 2012, Damerla introduced a resolution to reform the 1998 Condominium Act. Her resolution would help facilitate disputes between condominium boards and owners. She said that the current system is long and costly. She said, "the act provided a dispute resolution process which was right for that time and the place. However, 14 years later, times have changed. Our province is a very different place now." The resolution passed first reading in June.[10]

She was re-elected in the 2014 provincial election.[11]

In June 2014, Damerla was appointed as an Associate Minister (minister without portfolio) for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care focusing on long-term care.[12] She then succeeded Mario Sergio as Minister responsible for Seniors Affairs, another minister without portfolio position, in a June 13, 2016 cabinet shuffle.[citation needed]

Damerla was appointed Minister of Seniors Affairs, leading a new standalone ministry created from the former Ontario Seniors' Secretariat, on January 12, 2017.[13]

In the 2018 provincial election, Damerla was defeated in Mississauga East—Cooksville by Progressive Conservative candidate Kaleed Rasheed by a margin of 4739 votes.[14][15]

Damerla was an early endorser of Steven Del Duca's 2019-20 leadership bid, co-hosting his campaign's first event targeting former Queen's Park staffers with fellow former MPP Han Dong. She contested her former provincial seat again in 2022, closing the gap from 11% to 3.5% (1206 votes margin) but losing again to Rasheed, by then a cabinet minister.

Municipal politics

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Following her defeat in the 2018 provincial election, Damerla ran as a candidate to replace long-time Ward 7 Mississauga City Councillor Nando Iannica in the 2018 Mississauga municipal election,[16] winning easily with 41% of the vote to the runner-up's 16% and became the first new councillor for Ward 7 in over 30 years.[2] Despite her provincial loss in June 2022, she was re-elected easily later that year with 55% of the vote.

Damerla was one of the four sitting councillors who contested the 2024 mayoral byelection to replace Bonnie Crombie, who resigned after being elected leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in December 2023. Despite polls showing her as a close challenging to frontrunner and eventual winner Carolyn Parrish, Darmerla finished third with 19% behind fellow councillor Alvin Tedjo.

Electoral record

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Municipal

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Mississauga municipal election, 2018: Ward 7[17]
Candidate Votes %
Dipika Damerla 4,566 41.25
Andrew Gassmann 1,762 15.92
Leslie Zurek-Silvestri 1,399 12.64
9 other candidates 3,341 30.19
Total 11,068 100.00

Provincial

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2022 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Kaleed Rasheed 13,840 40.91 −0.24
Liberal Dipika Damerla 12,634 37.35 +7.11
New Democratic Khawar Hussain 3,664 10.83 −11.91
New Blue Mark Morrissey 1,599 4.73  
Green James Hea 1,345 3.98 +0.52
Ontario Party Gregory Tomchyshyn 625 1.85  
Moderate Wiktor Jachtholtz 121 0.36 −0.05
Total valid votes 33,828 100.0  
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots 222
Turnout 34,050 39.58
Eligible voters 85,958
Progressive Conservative hold Swing −3.68
Source(s)
  • "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023.
  • "Statistical Summary by Electoral District" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023.
2018 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Kaleed Rasheed 17,862 41.15 +14.95
Liberal Dipika Damerla 13,123 30.23 −22.10
New Democratic Tom Takacs 9,871 22.74 +7.35
Green Basia Krzyzanowski 1,498 3.45 −0.07
Libertarian Mark Donaldson 463 1.07 −0.90
None of the Above Leonard Little 413 0.95 –
Moderate Mykola Ponomarenko 175 0.40 –
Total valid votes 43,405 100.0  
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 447 1.03
Turnout 43,852 52.2
Eligible voters 83,122
Progressive Conservative gain from Liberal Swing +18.52
Source: Elections Ontario[18]
2014 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Dipika Damerla 20,934 52.33 +6.59
Progressive Conservative Zoran Churchin 10,479 26.20 −7.06
New Democratic Fayaz Karim 6,158 15.39 −1.40
Green Linh Nguyen 1,408 3.52 +0.97
Libertarian Levko Iwanusiw 788 1.97
Equal Parenting Dolly Catena 234 0.58
Total valid votes 40,001 100.0
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 557 1.37
Turnout 40,558 43.89
Eligible voters 92,402
Liberal hold Swing +6.83
Source(s)
Elections Ontario (2014). "Official Returns from the Records, 048 Mississauga East-Cooksville" (PDF). Retrieved 13 March 2015.
2011 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Dipika Damerla 15,535 45.74 −13.19
Progressive Conservative Zoran Churchin 11,297 33.26 +10.18
New Democratic Waseem Ahmed 5,704 16.79 +8.33
Green Lloyd Jones 934 2.75 −3.50
Independent Winston Harding 199 0.59
Freedom Jonathon Dury 177 0.52 −0.12
Paramount Canadians Shriya Shah-Klorfine 117 0.34
Total valid votes 33,963 100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 191 0.56
Turnout 34,154 40.50
Eligible voters 84,330
Liberal hold Swing −11.69
Source(s)
Elections Ontario (2011). "Official return from the records / Rapport des registres officiels - Mississauga East—Cooksville" (PDF). Retrieved 3 June 2014.

Notes

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  1. ^ Municipal politicians in Ontario run on a non-partisan basis.

References

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  1. ^ a b "City of Mississauga Welcomes the 2018-2022 Council". City Hall Newsroom. City of Mississauga. 22 November 2018. Archived from the original on 3 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  2. ^ a b Clay, Chris (22 October 2018). "'Feels good to be elected again': Dipika Damerla wins Mississauga's Ward 7 council seat". The Mississauga News. Metroland Media Group. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  3. ^ https://x.com/DipikaDamerla/status/1765787889370005598?s=20. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ^ "Carolyn Parrish wins Mississauga mayoral race in closer-than-expected vote". CP24. Toronto ON: BellMedia. 10 June 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  5. ^ Chin, Joseph (10 January 2012). "MPP finds her calling". The Mississauga News. p. 1.
  6. ^ Dean, Jan (15 July 2011). "Nomination fiercely contested". The Mississauga News. p. 1.
  7. ^ Chin, Joe (7 October 2011). "Rookie wins for Grits". The Mississauga News. p. 1.
  8. ^ "Summary of Valid Ballots Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 6 October 2011. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  9. ^ Rosella, Louie (11 November 2011). "MPPs take on new roles". The Mississauga News. p. 1.
  10. ^ Clay, Chris (18 June 2012). "MPP Damerla's condo dispute motion passes first reading". The Mississauga News. p. 1.
  11. ^ "General Election by District: Mississauga East-Cooksville". Elections Ontario. June 12, 2014. Archived from the original on September 23, 2014.
  12. ^ Richard Brennan; Robert Benzie; Rob Ferguson (24 June 2014). "Kathleen Wynne warns financial cupboard is bare". Toronto Star.
  13. ^ "Mississauga MPP Damerla appointed to lead new seniors ministry". The Mississauga News. Metroland Media Group. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  14. ^ Rayner, Ben (7 June 2018). "Two cabinet ministers felled in Mississauga East—Cooksville and Mississauga-Lakeshore". Toronto Star. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  15. ^ "Elections Ontario Electoral District 61". Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  16. ^ Raza, Ali (19 July 2018). "Former Wynne cabinet minister Dipika Damerla runs for Ward 7". The Mississauga News. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  17. ^ Rusnov, Diana (26 October 2018). "2018 Election, Official Results" (PDF). Mississauga Votes. Office of the City Clerk, City of Mississauga. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 October 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  18. ^ "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 6. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
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