Brenda Elliott
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Brenda Elliott (born October 27, 1950 in Goderich, Ontario) is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Progressive Conservative from 1995 to 2003, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves.
Elliott has a Bachelor of Arts degree from McMaster University, and worked as a teacher and librarian before entering provincial politics. In 1972, she was elected to the Wellington County Board of Education. She became interested in environmental causes during the 1990s, and in November 1989 opened a store in Guelph, Ontario called For Earth's Sake.
Elliott was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1995 provincial election, defeating former Liberal Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Rick Ferraro and incumbent New Democrat Derek Fletcher in the Guelph constituency. The Tories won a majority government in this election under Mike Harris's leadership, and Elliott was appointed as Minister of Environment and Energy on June 26, 1995.
Due to Elliott's background in the environmental movement, many believed she would be a strong advocate for "green" policies in the Harris cabinet. She was dropped from cabinet on August 16, 1996, and played only a minor role in the legislature for the next three years. In 1997, she appeared to endorse the Reform Party of Canada at the federal level.
Though her constituency seat was targeted by both the Liberals and the New Democratic Party, Elliott was re-elected in the 1999 provincial election for the redistributed riding of Guelph—Wellington. On February 8, 2001, she returned to cabinet as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. When Ernie Eves replaced Mike Harris as Premier of Ontario in 2002, he named Elliott as his Minister of Community, Family and Children's Services. In December 2002, a coroner's inquest into the death of Kimberly Rogers recommended significant changes to the government's welfare legislation, which Elliott dismissed as unnecessary tinkering with a system that "was working effectively".
The Tories were defeated in the 2003 provincial election, and Elliott lost her seat to Liberal candidate Liz Sandals by about 3,000 votes.
