Beth Phinney

Phinney's political career began in 1987 when she ran in a Hamilton Mountain by-election. She lost this contest to former Ottawa mayor Marion Dewar of the New Democratic Party.^[2] A year later, she defeated Dewar by 73 votes in the 1988 general election.^[3] The Liberals lost this election, and Phinney served in a number of critic portfolios over the next five years.

The Liberals won a majority government in the 1993 federal election and Phinney was re-elected over Reform Party candidate Craig Chandler, her nearest challenger, by nearly 17,000 votes.^[4] She repeated this performance in the 1997 election, defeating her nearest opponent by more than 12,000 votes.^[5] From 1998 to 2000, she served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of National Revenue. She was also involved in efforts to reform the Canada Pension Plan.

Phinney won another easy victory in the 2000 election.^[6] She faced a much more difficult re-election in the election of 2004, with both NDP candidate Chris Charlton and Conservative city councillor Tom Jackson posing credible challenges. In a close three-way race, Phinney defeated Charlton by 996 votes.^[7]

Phinney was one of the few Liberal members of Parliament to support Sheila Copps' leadership bid in 2003. She subsequently attempted to mediate the dispute between Copps and Tony Valeri for the Liberal nomination in Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, offering to stand down to let Copps run in her riding. Copps rejected this offer.^[8]

In May 2005, she announced that she was retiring from politics and would not run in the next election.^[9]

• Beth Phinney – Parliament of Canada biography