Broten gets promoted to education

[attach]5087[/attach]Laurel Broten has been re-elected by the residents of Etobicoke–Lakeshore, defeating her nearest rival, Progressive Conservative Simon Nyilassy, by a nearly 10,000-vote margin.

“I really look forward to continuing to ensure that Etobicoke–Lakeshore is a great place to live and work and raise your family,” said Broten. “I think that you can see by the election results that we ran a strong campaign.”

Broten has represented the riding since 2003 and in that time has served as the minister of the environment and, most recently, the minister of child and youth services. She has also served as the parliamentary assistant to the ministers of health and long-term care, energy and infrastructure and to Premier Dalton McGuinty.

On Oct. 20, it was announced that Broten will be switching cabinet posts for the upcoming term and will take on two portfolios.

“It’s an honour and a privilege to be asked by the premier to serve as minister of education and minister responsible for women’s issues,” Broten said. “Ontario Liberals have helped create one of the best public education systems in the world, one with smaller class sizes, higher test scores and more students graduating.

“I’m looking forward to getting down to work and building on that progress.”

In addition to education, employment will also be a focus of Broten’s.

“One of the things we heard a lot about on the campaign trail was the need to continue to bring quality jobs into Etobicoke,” she said. “We’ve had much success in securing new investments in Etobicoke–Lakeshore in terms of job creation and I’ll certainly continue to turn my attention to that issue.”

Broten said she would also continue to improve the aesthetics of her riding.

“The continued redevelopment of public lands on the waterfront and elsewhere in our community is something that I’ll continue to push for,” she said.

The Etobicoke–Lakeshore community sent Broten back to Queen’s Park despite failing to re-elect former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff during the federal election in May. Although she kept her seat en route to her third straight victory her party finished one seat short of their third straight majority government.

Though Broten has not yet served as part of a minority government she said she is no stranger to working with the other parties.

“I think the premier has made it clear that we are going to bring to Queen’s Park the agenda of positive progressive government,” she said. “I think there’s lots of opportunity for conversations across the aisle and in the roles that I’ve had over the past eight years I’ve had opportunity to work with members of opposition.”