Draft:Leslie Church

Leslie Church is a Canadian political staffer and politician who served as Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland from 2021 to 2023. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada she was first appointed a Ministerial Chief of Staff following their victory in the 2015 Canadian federal election. During her time in government she was instrumental in the implementation of 2 federal budgets. She was the Liberal candidate for the 2024 Toronto—St. Paul's federal by-election in which she lost to Conservative Party of Canada candidate Don Stewart by less than 600 votes.

Career

Leslie Church was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta where she became politically active as a teenager as a member of the Young Liberals of Canada. She attended the University of Alberta where she graduated in 2001 which an Honours degree in Political Science and international relations. She later attended the London School of Economics where she received a Masters in Political Science and the University of Toronto where she received her LLB in 2006. Upon completion of her studies she worked as a lawyer at Torys LLP and as a head of communications for Google Canada.

In 2015 upon the victory of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2015 Canadian federal election she left Toronto and moved to Ottawa where she was appointed Chief of Staff to the Minister of Canadian Heritage at the time Mélanie Joly. She went on to serve as Cheif of Staff to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and as Chief of Staff to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada where she was instrumental in the procurement of masks and other needed equipment during the Covid 19 pandemic.

In 2020 Church moved to the Ministry of Finance where she first served as Director of Policy and later Chief of Staff from 2021 to October 2023. In October 2023 Church resigned her position and moved her family back to Toronto where she began campaigning for the Liberal nomination for the riding of Toronto—St. Paul's after former Cabinet Minister and MP Carolyn Bennett announced she would not stand for re-election in the 45th Canadian federal election.

On January 16th 2024 Bennett resigned her seat in the House of Commons of Canada triggering a by-election in the riding. After a campaign Leslie Church defeated Emma Richardson for the Liberal Nomination during a nomination meeting on April 30th 2024. In the by-election on June 24th Church was defeated by conservative candidate Don Stewart by a margin of less than 600 votes after leading in the count for most of the evening. The result was considered a big upset in a safe Liberal seat and raised questions about the success of the Liberal Party in the next federal election.

In a statement the morning after the by-election Church accepted defeat but announced she would be seeking the Liberal nomination once again for the general election scheduled to be held at the latest in October 2025.

Personal Life

Leslie Church is married with 3 children and resides in Toronto. She moved back to Toronto from Ottawa in advance of the by-election.

Electoral record

Canadian federal by-election, June 24, 2024: Toronto—St. Paul's Resignation of Carolyn Bennett
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Don Stewart	15,565	42.11	+16.81
	Liberal	Leslie Church	14,932	40.40	-8.82
	New Democratic	Amrit Parhar	4,073	11.02	-5.81
	Green	Christian Cullis	1,057	2.86	-3.13
	People's	Dennis Wilson	238	0.64	-2.02
	Independent	Jonathan Schachter	97	0.26
	Independent	Mário Stocco	82	0.22
	Marxist–Leninist	Meñico Turcotte	59	0.16
	Rhinoceros	Sean Carson	51	0.14
	Independent	Thibaud Mony	51	0.14
	Independent	Glen MacDonald	42	0.11
	Independent	Mélodie Anderson	39	0.11
	Independent	Demetrios Karavas	37	0.10
	No Affiliation	Stephen Davis	36	0.10
	Independent	Jordan Wong	31	0.08
	Marijuana	Danny Légaré	30	0.08
	Independent	Alex Banks	27	0.07
	Centrist	Ali Mohiuddin	26	0.07
	Independent	Jaël Champagne Gareau	23	0.06
	Independent	Michael Bednarski	18	0.05
	Independent	John Dale	18	0.05
	Independent	Pierre Larochelle	17	0.05
	Independent	Joshua Bram Hieu Pham	17	0.05
	Independent	Marie-Hélène LeBel	16	0.04
	Independent	Guillaume Paradis	16	0.04
	Independent	Daniel Andrew Graham	13	0.04
	Independent	Pierre Granger	13	0.04
	Independent	Julie St-Amand	13	0.04
	Independent	Loren Hicks	12	0.03
	Independent	Matéo Martin	12	0.03
	Independent	Blake Hamilton	11	0.03
	Independent	Line Bélanger	10	0.02
	Independent	Charles Currie	10	0.03
	Independent	Cory Deville	10	0.03
	Independent	Alexandra Engering	10	0.03
	Independent	Daniel Stuckless	10	0.03
	Independent	Erle Stanley Bowman	9	0.02
	Independent	Anthony Hamel	9	0.02
	Independent	Pascal St-Amand	9	0.02
	Independent	Sébastien CoRhino	8	0.02
	Independent	Mark Dejewski	8	0.02
	Independent	Daniel Gagnon	8	0.02
	Independent	Agnieszka Marszalek	8	0.02
	Independent	Olivier Renaud	8	0.02
	Independent	Patrick Strzalkowski	8	0.02
	Independent	Donald Gagnon	7	0.02
	Independent	Benjamin Teichman	7	0.02
	Independent	MarthaLee Aykroyd	6	0.02
	Independent	Myriam Beaulieu	6	0.02
	Independent	Kubera Desai	6	0.02
	Independent	Donovan Eckstrom	6	0.02
	Independent	Kevin Krisa	6	0.02
	Independent	Lorant Polya	6	0.02
	Independent	Roger Sherwood	6	0.02
	Independent	Elliot Wand	6	0.02
	Independent	Michal Wieczorek	6	0.02
	Independent	Maxime Boivin	5	0.01
	Independent	Martin Acetaria Caesar Jubinville	5	0.01
	Independent	Jean-Denis Parent Boudreault	4	0.01
	Independent	Léthycia-Félix Corriveau	4	0.01
	Independent	Ysack Dupont	4	0.01
	Independent	Dji-Pé Frazer	4	0.01
	Independent	Zornitsa Halacheva	4	0.01
	Independent	Alain Lamontagne	4	0.01
	Independent	Renée Lemieux	4	0.01
	Independent	Danimal Preston	4	0.01
	Independent	Spencer Rocchi	4	0.01
	Independent	Yogo Shimada	4	0.01
	Independent	Darcy Vanderwater	4	0.01
	Independent	Mylène Bonneau	3	0.01
	Independent	Guillaume Gagnier-Michel	3	0.01
	Independent	Kerri Hildebrandt	3	0.01
	Independent	Krzysztof Krzywinski	3	0.01
	Independent	Connie Lukawski	3	0.01
	Independent	Wallace Richard Rowat	3	0.01
	Independent	Gavin Vanderwater	3	0.01
	Independent	Alain Bourgault	2	0.01
	No Affiliation	Manon Marie Lili Desbiens	2	0.01
	Independent	Gerrit Dogger	2	0.01
	Independent	Samuel Ducharme	2	0.01
	Independent	Yusuf Kadir Nasihi	2	0.01
	Independent	Winston Neutel	2	0.01
	Independent	Jacques Saintonge	2	0.01
	Independent	Felix-Antoine Hamel	0	0.00
Total valid votes			36,962
Total rejected ballots
Turnout				43.52	-21.96
Eligible voters			84,934
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing		+12.76

References

Canada, Élections. “Election Night Results - Electoral Districts.” Elections.ca, 2024, enr.elections.ca/ElectoralDistricts.aspx?ed=2237&lang=e. Accessed 6 July 2024.

“Carolyn Bennett, Longtime Liberal MP and Cabinet Minister, Stepping down | Globalnews.ca.” Global News, globalnews.ca/news/10165969/carolyn-bennett-steps-down-toronto-st-pauls-mp/. Accessed 6 July 2024.

Kennedy, Brendan. “Toronto-St. Paul’s Voters Head to the Polls Monday in a Byelection Being Seen as a Test for Trudeau’s Liberals.” Toronto Star, 24 June 2024, www.thestar.com/politics/federal/toronto-st-paul-s-voters-head-to-the-polls-monday-in-a-byelection-being-seen/article_b70a4040-316e-11ef-8a05-1bd9d8898e7a.html. Accessed 6 July 2024.

“Leslie Church - Google Search.” Www.google.com, www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=leslie+church&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8. Accessed 6 July 2024.

“Leslie Church Expected to Easily Win Liberal Nomination in Toronto-St. Paul’s on Wednesday: Sources.” Www.ipolitics.ca, www.ipolitics.ca/news/leslie-church-expected-to-easily-win-liberal-nomination-in-toronto-st-pauls-on-tuesday-sources. Accessed 6 July 2024.

“Prime Minister Announces the Appointment of the Honourable Carolyn Bennett as Canada’s next Ambassador to Denmark.” Prime Minister of Canada, 17 Jan. 2024, www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2024/01/17/prime-minister-justin-trudeau-announces-appointment-honourable-carolyn-bennett. Accessed 6 July 2024.