Doly Begum

Doly Begum
MPP
Doly Begum MPP
	Begum in 2023
Deputy Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; July 13, 2022 Serving with Sol Mamakwa
Leader	Peter Tabuns; Marit Stiles
Preceded by	John Vanthof and Sara Singh
Critic, Immigration Services and International Credentials
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; July 13, 2022
Leader	Peter Tabuns
Critic, Early Learning and Childcare
	In office; August 23, 2018 – June 2, 2022
Leader	Andrea Horwath
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament; for Scarborough Southwest
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; June 7, 2018
Preceded by	Lorenzo Berardinetti
Personal details
Born	Moulvibazar District, Bangladesh
Political party	New Democratic
Residence(s)	Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario
Education	University of Toronto ; University College London

Doly Begum (Bengali: ডলি বেগম) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 provincial election.^[1] She represents the riding of Scarborough Southwest as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party. At 29, Doly Begum was the youngest New Democrat among the party's caucus^[2] and is the first Bangladeshi-Canadian to be elected to a legislative body in Canada.^[3]

Begum was born in the Moulvibazar District of Bangladesh.^[4] She immigrated to Canada as a child with her family,^[5] and attended Gordon A. Brown Middle School and W. A. Porter Collegiate Institute.^[6] Thereafter, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in political science, and a Master of Arts in development, administration and planning from University College London. Prior to her candidacy, she was Co-Chair of the Scarborough Health Coalition, Vice-Chair of Warden Woods Community Centre, a research analyst at the Society of Energy Professionals, and was the chief coordinator of the province-wide Keep Hydro Public campaign.

As of February 2021, she is the Official Opposition Critic for Citizenship, Foreign Credentials and Immigration Services.^[7] Prior to that, she was the Deputy Opposition Whip from August 2019 to February 2021, the Critic for Early Learning and Childcare from August 2018 to February 2021 and a Member of the Standing Committee on Social Policy from July 2018 to October 2019. Her critic portfolio changed to Immigration Services, and International Credentials following the 2022 Ontario general election.

On July 13, 2022, Begum was named a Deputy Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, alongside Sol Mamakwa.^[8]

Election results

v t e 2022 Ontario general election: Scarborough Southwest
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Doly Begum	16,842	47.68	+2.02	$103,194
	Progressive Conservative	Bret Snider	9,750	27.60	−3.62	$67,267
	Liberal	Lisa Patel	6,556	18.56	−0.38	$65,227
	Green	Cara Brideau	1,251	3.54	+0.84	$2,506
	New Blue	Peter Naus	383	1.08		$609
	Ontario Party	Barbara Everatt	320	0.91		$0
	None of the Above	James McNair	114	0.32	−0.19	$0
	Independent	Michelle Parsons	110	0.31		$0
Total valid votes/Expense limit			35,326	99.31	+0.42	$112,311
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			247	0.69	−0.42
Turnout			35,573	44.34	−8.85
Eligible voters			79,624
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+2.82
Source(s) "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-18. "Statistical Summary by Electoral District" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21.

v t e 2018 Ontario general election: Scarborough Southwest
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Doly Begum	19,835	45.66	+22.01
	Progressive Conservative	Gary Ellis	13,565	31.22	+10.58
	Liberal	Lorenzo Berardinetti	8,228	18.94	-31.28
	Green	David Del Grande	1,174	2.70	-1.37
	None of the Above	Allen Atkinson	222	0.51
	Libertarian	James Speirs	195	0.45	-0.44
	Special Needs	Willie Little	160	0.37
	Trillium	Bobby Turley	64	0.15
Total valid votes			43,443	100.0
Source: Elections Ontario^[9]