Chris Charlton
Charlton in September 2006
Member of Parliament forHamilton Mountain
In office January 23, 2006 – August 4, 2015
Preceded by	Beth Phinney
Succeeded by	Scott Duvall
Personal details
Born	Chris Happel (1963-07-04)July 4, 1963 (age 62) Dortmund,West Germany
Nationality	Canadian
Political party	New Democratic
Spouse	Brian Charlton
Residence(s)	Hamilton,Ontario
Alma mater	University of Western Ontario McMaster University
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Political adviser consultant teaching assistant

Chris Charlton (born July 4, 1963) is a German-born, retired Canadian politician from the City ofHamilton, Ontario. As aNew Democrat, she served as the member of Parliament forHamilton Mountain from2006 until 2015.

Charlton was born inDortmund,Germany and immigrated to Canada with her parents in 1975. She attended theUniversity of Western Ontario for undergraduate studies and thenMcMaster University to pursue a master's degree in Political Science. During this time, she became active with the New Democratic Youth club on campus.^[1] Soon after,Bob Rae and the New Democrats came to power in Ontario, and Charlton received a job as a political advisor with the government, where her husband,Brian Charlton (whom she married in 1992), was a cabinet minister. TheProgressive Conservatives defeated Rae's government in the1995 provincial election.

At the time the Hamilton Mountain New Democrats held their nomination meeting to declare a candidate to run against Beth Phinney in1997, Charlton had become a Teaching Assistant at U of T and had nearly completed her studies.^[2] Though only 33 at the time, she had already served as an advisor to Bob Rae's government, and went unopposed in the nomination.^[3] On election night, she placed 4th out of 6 candidates, which would be the lowest she would ever poll in an election campaign.

Over the course of the next nine years, she would run in the1999 provincial election and the2003 provincial election, theHamilton municipal election of 2000 and two federal elections in1997 and2004.

Just prior to the 2006 election, she was the Director of Community Relations with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Canada,^[4] but resigned her position to stand again, this time against Ward 7 Councillor Bill Kelly, who she attempted to unseat in theHamilton municipal election of 2000. Charlton won that race by a 6-point margin, and retook the riding for the New Democrats after 17 years of Liberal representation.

In2008, Charlton faced another former Ward 7 councillor, Terry Anderson of theConservatives and local lawyer Tyler Banham of theLiberals. Despite an aggressive internet campaign on behalf of the Liberals,^[5] the race became a New Democrat-Conservative match, which saw Charlton increase voter support despite a lower voter turnout than in 2006.

Charlton announce on December 5, 2014 that she was not going to run for re-election in thenext federal election in a year's time, after almost a decade in parliament and 25 years in politics.^[6]

In the2009 Ontario New Democratic Leadership race, Charlton officially endorsedAndrea Horwath for leader, who would win the position on the third ballot.^[7]

• Chris Charlton – Parliament of Canada biography

• 1963 births
• German emigrants to Canada
• Women members of the House of Commons of Canada
• Living people
• McMaster University alumni
• Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
• New Democratic Party MPs
• Politicians from Hamilton, Ontario
• University of Toronto alumni
• University of Western Ontario alumni
• Women in Ontario politics
• 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada
• 21st-century Canadian women politicians

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use Canadian English from September 2021
• All Wikipedia articles written in Canadian English
• Use mdy dates from September 2021