BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-CANADIAN " MARLENE JENNINGS " IS FORMER CANADIAN POLITICIAN WHO WAS A MEMBER OF THE LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA IN THE CANADIAN HOUSE OF COMMONS AND REPRESENTED THE RIDING OF NOTRE-DAME-de-GRACE - LACHINE FROM 1997 TO 2011 : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

                                       BLACK                 SOCIAL             HISTORY                                                  

                                                                                                                                                      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.

Jennings was born in Longueuil, Quebec. She is a former lawyer and senior public servant. She is the former Parliamentary Secretaryto 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.^[1][2]

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 theCanadian federal election, 2011, losing her seat to Isabelle Morin of the NDP.

Later life and career

After her last electoral defeat, Jennings was courted by the CAQ, but declined. 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.^[3]

[hide]Canadian federal election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Isabelle Morin	17,943	39.73%	+24.57%
	Liberal	Marlene Jennings	14,407	31.90%	-12.72%
	Conservative	Matthew Conway	6,574	14.56%	-1.66%
	Bloc Québécois	Gabrielle Ladouceur-Despins	3,983	8.82%	-7.07%
	Green	Jessica Gal	1,914	4.24%	-3.47%
	Independent	David Andrew Lovett	207	0.46%	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Rachel Hoffman	131	0.29%	-0.11%
Total valid votes			45,159	100.00%
Total rejected ballots			464	1.02%	+0.12%
Turnout			45,623

Source: Elections Canada

[hide]Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marlene Jennings	19,554	44.62%	+0.77%	$43,963
	Conservative	Carmine Pontillo	7,108	16.22%	-1.22%	$45,991
	Bloc Québécois	Éric Taillefer	6,962	15.89%	-4.45%	$7,443
	New Democratic	Peter Deslauriers	6,641	15.16%	+3.34%	$50,302
	Green	Jessica Gal	3,378	7.71%	+1.74%	$959
	Marxist–Leninist	Rachel Hoffman	177	0.40%	+0.14%
Total valid votes/Expense limit			43,820	100.00%	$83,411
Total rejected ballots			396	0.90%
Turnout			44,216
	Liberal hold		Swing	+1.0%

[hide]Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marlene Jennings	20,235	43.85%	-9.35%	$64,145
	Bloc Québécois	Alexandre Lambert	9,385	20.34%	-1.65%	$15,822
	Conservative	Allen F. MacKenzie	8,048	17.44%	+7.22%	$29,196
	New Democratic	Peter Deslauriers	5,455	11.82%	+3.89%	$19,445
	Green	Pierre-Albert Sévigny	2,754	5.97%	+0.97%	$1,065
	Libertarian	Earl Wertheimer	152	0.33%	-0.04%
	Marxist–Leninist	Rachel Hoffman	118	0.26%	+0.06%
Total valid votes/Expense limit			46,147	100.00%	$78,444
	Liberal hold		Swing	-3.85%

[hide]Canadian federal election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marlene Jennings	23,552	53.20%	-7.53%	$63,389
	Bloc Québécois	Jean-Philippe Chartre	9,736	21.99%	+3.88%	$9,950
	Conservative	William R McCullock	4,526	10.22%	-1.30%	$19,959
	New Democratic	Maria Pia Chávez	3,513	7.93%	+3.20%	$6,040
	Green	Jessica Gal	2,214	5.00%	+2.79%	$1,069
	Marijuana	Jay Dell	479	1.08%	-0.84%
	Libertarian	Earl Wertheimer	165	0.37%	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Rachel Hoffman	88	0.20%	-0.14%
Total valid votes/Expense limit			44,273	100.00%	$78,500

Note: Conservative vote is compared to the total of the Canadian Alliance vote and Progressive Conservative vote in 2000 election.

[hide]Canadian federal election, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp
	Liberal	Marlene Jennings	28,328	60.72%	+4.17%
	Bloc Québécois	Jeannine Ouellet	8,449	18.11%	+1.29%
	Progressive Conservative	Kathy Megyery	3,352	7.19%	-12.60%
	New Democratic	Bruce Toombs	2,208	4.73%	+0.31%
	Alliance	Darrin Etcovitch	2,022	4.33%
	Green	Katie Graham	1,031	2.21%
	Marijuana	Grégoire Faber	897	1.92%
	Natural Law	Michael Wilson	205	0.44%	-0.65%
	Marxist–Leninist	Rachel Hoffman	159	0.34%
Total valid votes			46,651	100.00%

Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to the Reform vote in 1997 election.

[hide]Canadian federal election, 1997
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Marlene Jennings	29,582	56.56%
	Progressive Conservative	John V. Hachey	10,350	19.79%
	Bloc Québécois	Geneviève Dumont-Frenette	8,797	16.82%
	New Democratic	André Cardinal	2,315	4.43%
	Natural Law	Ronald Bessette	569	1.09%
	Independent	Bryan Wolofsky	389	0.74%
	Independent	Caroline Polcsak	303	0.58%
Total valid votes			52,305	100.00%