1. Elizabeth Rowley has been a member of the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Canada since 1978 and has campaigned for office many times at the municipal, federal and provincial levels.
19 Facts About Elizabeth Rowley
1. 2.
Elizabeth Rowley was elected the leader of the Communist Party of Canada by the party's Central Committee in January 2016, following the retirement of Miguel Figueroa.
3.
Elizabeth Rowley is the first female leader of the Communist Party of Canada.
4.
Elizabeth Rowley was the Party's youngest candidate in the 1972 federal election, campaigning on issues such as women's reproductive rights, as abortion was then illegal in Canada, as well as calling for an end to the Vietnam War and Canada's participation.
5.
In 1978, Elizabeth Rowley stood for a seat on the Hamilton Board of Control in the last election to that body before it was dissolved prior to the city's 1980 election.
6.
Early in the campaign, Elizabeth Rowley was formally asked by the city's Streets and Sanitation Department to remove her election signs from public property, as their placement violated a local bylaw During her campaign, she advocated for lower property taxes for homeowners, the construction of affordable housing, and a 20-cent bus fare.
7.
Elizabeth Rowley told the Hamilton Spectator that she was opposed to amalgamation, a proposed expansion to the Hamilton Airport, the Upper Ottawa Street dump, and cutbacks to cultural funding.
8.
On election night, Elizabeth Rowley finished 6th out of 8 candidates with 13,320 votes.
9.
The Communist Party held a new 30th Central Convention in 1991, at which Elizabeth Rowley was again elected to the party leadership.
10.
Elizabeth Rowley moved to Toronto in 1988 after being elected leader of the Ontario Committee of the Communist Party, one of the first women leaders of an Ontario political party.
11.
Elizabeth Rowley led the Ontario Committee of the Communist Party in a number of campaigns, including against the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement, as well as the 1990 general election.
12.
For many years Elizabeth Rowley has strongly opposed the NAFTA and other trade agreements that she believes threaten public services.
13.
Elizabeth Rowley has spent many years promoting public education and medicare, as well as civil rights and labour causes.
14.
Elizabeth Rowley served along with fledgling politicians like Gail Nyberg and Jane Pitfield from 1994 to 1997, when the board was amalgamated.
15.
Since then, Elizabeth Rowley has been a regular columnist for the People's Voice, a working class newspaper which describes itself as a socialist press.
16.
Elizabeth Rowley has written numerous articles on public resistance in Canada that have been translated into several languages and published around the world.
17.
Elizabeth Rowley has spoken at international conferences and progressive forums in Europe, America and Asia, and has represented the Communist Party of Canada several times at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties.
18.
Elizabeth Rowley has been outspoken on issues such as the G20 arrests in Toronto, the Rob Ford administration, migrant and immigrant rights in Toronto, for a single, secular school board, for public auto insurance, for peace and anti-racism, proportional representation, and much more.
19.
In 1981 Elizabeth Rowley married a steelworker, in the middle of the 125-day-long Hamilton Stelco strike.