Dipika Damerla | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mississauga City Councillor | |
| Assumed office December 3, 2018[1] | |
| Preceded by | Nando Iannica |
| Constituency | Ward 7 (Cooksville) |
| Minister of Seniors Affairs | |
| In office June 13, 2016 – June 28, 2018 | |
| Premier | Kathleen Wynne |
| Preceded by | Mario Sergio |
| Succeeded by | Raymond Cho |
| Associate Minister for Long-Term Care and Wellness | |
| In office June 24, 2014 – June 13, 2016 | |
| Premier | Kathleen Wynne |
| Member of theOntario Provincial Parliament forMississauga East—Cooksville | |
| In office October 6, 2011 – June 7, 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Peter Fonseca |
| Succeeded by | Kaleed Rasheed |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Hyderabad,Telangana,India |
| Political party | Independent[a] |
| Other political affiliations | Liberal |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto |
| Website | dipikaformayor |
Dipika Damerla is aCanadian politician inMississauga,Ontario. She is the currentMississauga City Councillor for Ward 7, the neighbourhood ofCooksville, since her swearing-in on December 3, 2018.[1][2] Previously, Damerla was aLiberal member of theLegislative Assembly of Ontario representing the riding ofMississauga East—Cooksville from 2011 to 2018. She served as Minister of Seniors Affairs in theCabinet of PremierKathleen Wynne. On March 7, 2024, Damerla Announced that she would be seeking to be electedMayor of Mississauga.[3] She placed third with 19.4%, losing toCarolyn Parrish.[4]
Damerla was born in aTelugu-speaking family inSecunderabad,Andhra Pradesh (present dayTelangana),India. After emigrating to Canada she earned her MBA from theRotman School of Management at theUniversity of Toronto. She worked in corporate banking at theRoyal Bank of Canada and theBank 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]
Damerla is a member of theOntario Liberal Party. She won a tough 2011 nomination race to be the Liberal candidate forMississauga East—Cooksville, beating Nancy Fonseca (the sister of previous Mississauga East—Cooksville MPPPeter Fonseca).[6] She beat her nearest rival,Progressive Conservative Zoran Churchin by 4,238 votes in the2011 provincial election.[7][8]
In November 2011, she was appointed asParliamentary 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 the2014 provincial election.[11]
In June 2014, Damerla was appointed as an Associate Minister (minister without portfolio) for theMinistry of Health and Long-Term Care focusing on long-term care.[12] She then succeededMario Sergio as Minister responsible for Seniors Affairs, anotherminister without portfolio position, in a June 13, 2016 cabinet shuffle.[citation needed]
Damerla was appointedMinister of Seniors Affairs, leading a new standalone ministry created from the former Ontario Seniors' Secretariat, on January 12, 2017.[13]
In the2018 provincial election, Damerla was defeated in Mississauga East—Cooksville byProgressive Conservative candidateKaleed Rasheed by a margin of 4739 votes.[14][15]
Damerla was an early endorser ofSteven Del Duca's2019-20 leadership bid, co-hosting his campaign's first event targeting former Queen's Park staffers with fellow former MPPHan Dong. She contested her former provincial seat again in2022, closing the gap from 11% to 3.5% (1206 votes margin) but losing again to Rasheed, by then a cabinet minister.
Following her defeat in the 2018 provincial election, Damerla ran as a candidate to replace long-time Ward 7Mississauga City Councillor Nando Iannica in the2018 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 the2024 mayoral by-election to replaceBonnie 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 winnerCarolyn Parrish, Damerla finished third with 19% behind fellow councillor Alvin Tedjo.
| 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 |
| 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 Conservativehold | Swing | −3.68 | ||||||
Source(s)
| ||||||||
| 2018 Ontario general election:Mississauga East—Cooksville | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Kaleed Rasheed | 17,862 | 41.15 | +13.22 | ||||
| Liberal | Dipika Damerla | 13,123 | 30.23 | −19.96 | ||||
| New Democratic | Tom Takacs | 9,871 | 22.74 | +7.83 | ||||
| Green | Basia Krzyzanowski | 1,498 | 3.45 | −0.20 | ||||
| Libertarian | Mark Donaldson | 463 | 1.07 | N/A | ||||
| None of the Above | Leonard Little | 413 | 0.95 | N/A | ||||
| Moderate | Mykola Ponomarenko | 175 | 0.40 | N/A | ||||
| Total valid votes | 43,405 | 98.97 | ||||||
| Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 447 | 1.03 | ||||||
| Turnout | 43,852 | 52.2 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 83,122 | |||||||
| Progressive Conservativenotional gain fromLiberal | Swing | +16.59 | ||||||
| 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 | |||||||
| Liberalhold | Swing | +6.83 | ||||||
Source(s) Elections Ontario (2014)."Official Returns from the Records, 048 Mississauga East-Cooksville"(PDF). Retrieved13 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 | |||||||
| Liberalhold | Swing | −11.69 | ||||||
Source(s) Elections Ontario (2011)."Official return from the records / Rapport des registres officiels - Mississauga East—Cooksville"(PDF). Retrieved3 June 2014. | ||||||||
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