Laurel Collins

Collins was born in Kispiox in northern British Columbia, one of three children. Her parents, school teachers, separated when she was a baby, and she moved around the province, attending elementary school on Salt Spring Island, Alert Bay, and in Port Hardy. She went to high school in Sussex, New Brunswick and did her undergraduate degree at the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.^[4] She did a master's degree in Human Security and Peacebuilding at Royal Roads University.^[2]

Collins worked at Victoria Women in Need, running programs for women who have experienced abuse. She co-founded and co-chaired Divest Victoria, a non-profit organization that advocates for cities to take their money out of fossil fuels and put them into environmentally responsible investments. While researching climate migration and displacement, she worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Northern Uganda helping to create durable solutions for internally displaced persons in the aftermath of deadly conflict.^[5]

From 2014 to 2019, Collins taught courses at the University of Victoria, including courses in Social Inequality, Social Justice Studies, Political Sociology, and the Sociology of Genders.^[2] In 2015, she co-published a book, Women, Adult Education, and Leadership in Canada.^[6] And, in 2017, she won a Victoria Community Leadership Award in Sustainability and Community Building.^[7]

In October 2018, Collins was elected as a city councillor for Victoria City Council with the electoral organization Together Victoria.^[8] She would resign from this position a year later, after her election to the House of Commons in late October 2019.^[9] The byelection following her departure was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic until December 2020, where it eventually resulted in the by-election of Stephen Andrew.^[10][11]

Collins was re-elected in the 2021 federal election.

She was the NDP Critic for the Environment and Climate Change and the Deputy Critic for Families, Children, and Social Development.^[12]

In the 2025 Canadian federal election, she was unseated by Liberal candidate Will Greaves.^[13]