Summary
Vijay Thanigasalam MPP (born March 8, 1989) is a Canadian politician who is the Associate Minister of Transportation. He has sat as a member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) since 2018, representing the riding of Scarborough—Rouge Park as a member of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party. Thanigasalam is the first Tamil Canadian to be appointed a Minister in Ontario.
Vijay Thanigasalam | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Associate Minister of Transportation | |
| Assumed office September 22, 2023 | |
| Premier | Doug Ford |
| Preceded by | Todd McCarthy |
| Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure | |
| In office June 29, 2022 – September 22, 2023 | |
| Minister | Kinga Surma |
| Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation | |
| In office June 26, 2019 – June 1, 2022 | |
| Minister | Caroline Mulroney |
| Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Scarborough—Rouge Park | |
| Assumed office June 7, 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Riding established |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 8, 1989 Jaffna |
| Political party | Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario |
| Residence(s) | Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario |
| Alma mater | Ontario Tech University |
Early life and education edit
Born in 1989, Thanigasalam immigrated to Canada at the age of 14. He attended St. Joan of Arc Catholic Academy (then known as Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School) while working multiple part-time jobs. At this time, he began to get involved and volunteer with many community organizations in Scarborough. He went on to study at the University of Toronto Scarborough and completed his Bachelor of Commerce in Finance at the Ontario Tech University. After graduation, Thanigasalam worked as a financial advisor.[1]
Political career edit
On June 7, 2018, Thanigasalam was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as the Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Scarborough—Rouge Park. In 2019, he was named Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation. In this capacity, Thanigasalam and his government announced the building of the Scarborough Subway Extension, which is currently under construction.[2]
He also secured funding for the Tamil Community Centre within his riding of Scarborough—Rouge Park, which has the highest concentration of Tamil Canadians in Canada.[3]
In 2022, Thanigasalam supported the provincial government’s $1 billion plan to revitalize the Scarborough Health Network’s aging infrastructure. The funding includes a new emergency department at Centenary Hospital and a complete redevelopment of the Birchmount Hospital.[4] Thanigasalam was also instrumental in announcing the Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health (SAMIH) at the University of Toronto Scarborough, the first ever medical school in Scarborough. This is the largest expansion of an undergraduate and postgraduate medical school in Toronto since 1843.[5]
Thanigasalam was re-elected in the 2022 Ontario general election and subsequently named Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure.
On September 22, 2023, Thanigasalam was appointed Associate Minister of Transportation. [6]
One Fare Program edit
In February 2024, Thanigasalam implemented Ontario’s One Fare Program alongside Premier Doug Ford, which eliminated double-fares between the TTC and participating regional transit agencies in the Greater Toronto Area, including GO Transit.[7] The announcement of the program was immediately very popular across the region as it would save the average transit rider $1600 per year, which received widespread support from transit advocates.[8] The program went into effect on February 26, 2024, less than one month after the initial announcement.[7]
Bill 104 - Tamil Genocide Education Week Act edit
In 2019, Thanigasalam introduced Bill 104, Tamil Genocide Education Week Act, which proposed a seven-day period ending on May 18th (which marks the Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day) to be recognized as Tamil Genocide Education Week in Ontario. The bill passed and received royal assent on May 12, 2021. The bill recognizes how Tamil-Ontarian families “have been physically or mentally traumatized by the genocide that the Sri Lankan state perpetrated against the Tamils during the civil war which lasted from 1983 to 2009, and especially so in May 2009".[9]
Bill 104 is the first time that claims of the Tamil Genocide were officially recognized by a government in the Tamil diaspora. This was significant for the Tamil community in Canada and across the world.[10]
Electoral record edit
| 2022 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Rouge Park | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Progressive Conservative | Vijay Thanigasalam | 15,989 | 45.28 | +6.66 | $51,906 | |||
| Liberal | Manal Abdullahi | 9,784 | 27.71 | +6.80 | $64,073 | |||
| New Democratic | Felicia Samuel | 7,742 | 21.92 | −14.40 | $82,981 | |||
| Green | Priyan De Silva | 850 | 2.41 | −0.01 | $806 | |||
| Ontario Party | Gordon Kerr | 523 | 1.48 | $7,952 | ||||
| New Blue | Christopher Bressi | 285 | 0.81 | $0 | ||||
| Freedom | Matthew Oliver | 139 | 0.39 | $0 | ||||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 35,312 | 99.62 | +0.50 | $109,994 | ||||
| Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots | 135 | 0.38 | -0.50 | |||||
| Turnout | 35,447 | 45.12 | -10.42 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 77,916 | |||||||
| Progressive Conservative hold | Swing | −0.07 | ||||||
Source(s)
| ||||||||
| 2018 Ontario general election: Scarborough—Rouge Park | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |||||
| Progressive Conservative | Vijay Thanigasalam | 16,224 | 38.61 | |||||
| New Democratic | Felicia Samuel | 15,261 | 36.32 | |||||
| Liberal | Sumi Shan | 8,785 | 20.91 | |||||
| Green | Priyan De Silva | 1,014 | 2.41 | |||||
| Libertarian | Todd Byers | 582 | 1.39 | |||||
| Trillium | Amit Mahendra Pitamber | 149 | 0.35 | |||||
| Total valid votes | 42,015 | 99.12 | ||||||
| Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 372 | 0.88 | ||||||
| Turnout | 42,387 | |||||||
| Eligible voters | ||||||||
| Progressive Conservative pickup new district. | ||||||||
| Source: Elections Ontario[11] | ||||||||
Cabinet posts edit
References edit
- ^ "After Fleeing Brutal Civil War, Ontario MPP Wants To Give Back To Canada". HuffPost. 2018-12-28. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ "Ontario Newsroom". news.ontario.ca. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2017-02-08). "2011 Census of Population - Data products". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ "Vijay Thanigasalam SHN Twitter Announcement". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ "'A historic moment': Event marks official launch of Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health". University of Toronto News. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ "Premier Doug Ford announces cabinet shuffle hours after third minister resigns in a month". CP24. 2023-09-22. Retrieved 2023-09-22.
- ^ a b "Full fare integration is coming to Toronto. Here's how it will work | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
- ^ https://x.com/JessicaBellTO/status/1754533638136283198?s=20
- ^ "Tamil Genocide Education Week Act, 2021". Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ "Ontario judge upholds Tamil Genocide Education Week in battle 'over who gets to write the history of the war'". thestar.com. 2022-06-28. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
- ^ "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. p. 8. Retrieved 20 January 2019.