Political Career
Carroll began her career in politics as a Barrie City councillor, representing the downtown Barrie ward.
In the 1993 election, Simcoe Centre (predecessor of Barrie) was the only Ontario riding that did not elect a Liberal MP. In 1997, Carroll sought and won the Liberal nomination for the newly created Barrie—Simcoe—Bradford. She went on to win the 1997 election with a sizable margin, and was re-elected again in 2000. After merger of the conservative parties, she was elected in 2004 in the newly created riding of Barrie with a substantially reduced margin of victory.
Carroll served as Parliamentary Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 2001 to 2003. A staunch Paul Martin supporter, Carroll was named Minister for International Cooperation, responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, when Paul Martin became Prime Minister on December 12, 2003. She retained that portfolio until the Liberals were defeated in 2006, when she lost her seat to her 2004 challenger Patrick Brown.
She subsequently stood as Ontario Liberal Party candidate in the provincial Barrie riding for the 2007 Ontario election, and defeated incumbent MPP Joe Tascona, who was also Brown's uncle. She was named to the provincial cabinet of Premier Dalton McGuinty as Minister of Culture and as Minister Responsible for Seniors shortly after that election. She was relieved of her cabinet posts in January 2010. In 2011, she announced she would not run for re-election in the riding of Barrie
Read more about this topic: Aileen Carroll
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