Indira Naidoo-Harris

Naidoo-Harris was born in Durban, South Africa under apartheid. She immigrated to Canada as a child and grew up in Alberta.^[1] She graduated from the University of Lethbridge and moved briefly to the United States in Troy, New York, where she developed a broadcasting career with NBC and PBS before returning to Canada in the 1990s, eventually anchoring for CBC Ottawa, CITV in Edmonton, CTV National, CBC National, and Newsworld International.^[2]

Prior to the election, she was a CBC Radio newsreader and a CBC Television journalist.^[3] She lives in Milton, Ontario with her husband Randy.^[4]

Naidoo-Harris ran in the 2011 provincial election as the Liberal candidate in the riding of Halton. She was defeated by Progressive Conservative incumbent Ted Chudleigh by 3,148 votes.^[5][6] She ran again in the 2014 election against Chudleigh this time defeating him by 5,726 votes.^[7][8]

From 2014 to 2016, she was a Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.^[1] On June 13, 2016, she was named Associate Minister of Finance Responsible for the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.^[9][10] On August 24, 2016 she was transferred from the pension role to a new educational ministerial position responsible for early years and child care.^[11] In addition to her role as Minister Responsible for Early Years and Child Care, in January 2017, Minister Naidoo-Harris was also named Minister of the Status of Women.^[12] In January 2018, she was named Minister of Education and kept her role as Minister Responsible for Early Years and Child Care.^[13]

In 2017, Naidoo-Harris was nominated to run for re-election as the Liberal candidate for the newly formed riding of Milton^[14] but was defeated in the 2018 election.^[15]

In August 2019, Naidoo-Harris was appointed as the University of Guelph’s Associate Vice-President of Diversity and Human Rights.^[16]

Her son Galen Naidoo Harris was the Liberal candidate in the 2024 Milton provincial by-election, in which he was defeated by the Progressive Conservative candidate Zee Hamid.^[17]