1. Melissa Lantsman previously worked as a communications advisor to several cabinet members in the 28th Canadian Ministry of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
28 Facts About Melissa Lantsman
1. 2.
Melissa Lantsman was a senior advisor to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its chief spokesperson during the 2018 Ontario provincial election.
3.
Melissa Lantsman was previously the national vice president of Public Affairs at Enterprise Canada, a strategic communications firm.
4.
In 2020, upon Peter Kent's retirement from Parliament, Melissa Lantsman announced her intention to seek the federal Conservative nomination in Thornhill.
5.
Melissa Lantsman defeated the incumbent PC member of Provincial Parliament, Gila Martow, to become the riding's CPC candidate on March 17,2021.
6.
Melissa Lantsman was elected to Parliament on September 20,2021, and sworn into office on October 28.
7.
Melissa Lantsman was elected the vice-chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport and Infrastructure.
8.
Melissa Lantsman was born in Toronto in 1984 to a Russian Jewish family and raised in Thornhill.
9.
Melissa Lantsman's mother was an accountant and her father was an uncredentialed engineer who worked in the taxi business and ran several pawn shops.
10.
Melissa Lantsman attended a French immersion program at Langstaff Secondary School in York Region and speaks fluent French in addition to English and Russian.
11.
Melissa Lantsman attended University of Toronto and graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts.
12.
Melissa Lantsman later pursued graduate studies at the University of Ottawa and Rotman School of Management.
13.
In 2018, Melissa Lantsman served as director of communications for Ontario MPP Caroline Mulroney's candidacy for leadership of the Ontario PC Party.
14.
Melissa Lantsman relinquished her partnership in Enterprise in 2021 to focus on her political candidacy.
15.
Melissa Lantsman has sat on the board of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Jewish Addiction Community Services and the Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto.
16.
Melissa Lantsman announced her candidacy for the Conservative nomination on November 27,2020.
17.
Melissa Lantsman was endorsed by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, former federal ministers John Baird, Joe Oliver, Pierre Poilievre, Rona Ambrose, Michelle Rempel Garner and Lisa Raitt, and incumbent Ontario provincial ministers Caroline Mulroney, Stephen Lecce, Greg Rickford and Paul Calandra.
18.
Melissa Lantsman was endorsed by federal and provincial Conservative legislators, including Eric Duncan, Scott Aitchison, Logan Kanapathi, Stan Cho, Roman Baber and Vijay Thanigasalam.
19.
Melissa Lantsman faced the incumbent MPP for Thornhill, Gila Martow, in the nomination contest.
20.
Melissa Lantsman participated in a series of nomination debates with Martow between December 2020 and March 2021.
21.
Melissa Lantsman faced Liberal candidate Gary Gladstone in the 2021 Canadian federal election on September 20 and, per preliminary results, won the seat with 51.3 per cent of the vote.
22.
Melissa Lantsman was sworn into the 44th Canadian Parliament on October 26,2021.
23.
In January 2023, Melissa Lantsman called for an emergency debate in Parliament on the rise in violence in the Toronto area, on the transit system, and across Canada.
24.
In May 2023, Melissa Lantsman advocated that Canada should isolate Uganda after they passed anti-LGBTQ laws.
25.
Melissa Lantsman attended the raising of the pride flag on Parliament Hill.
26.
In March 2024, NDP MP Heather McPherson proposed a motion that Canada recognize the State of Palestine; Melissa Lantsman opposed the motion.
27.
Melissa Lantsman said UNRWA was "an agency whose members actively participated on October 7,2023".
28.
Melissa Lantsman speaks English, French and Russian and is a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays.