Carol Mitchell

Carol Mitchell is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She was the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in the cabinet of Dalton McGuinty and member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the riding of Huron—Bruce. She is a member of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Mitchell was born in Clinton, Ontario in Huron County and was educated at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. She worked in retailing after her graduation, and ran stores selling children's clothes in Clinton and Bayfield. She was elected to Clinton's town council in 1993, and became its reeve later in the decade. She also served on the Huron County council, and was elected as the first reeve of the amalgamated municipality of Central Huron. She was elected as warden of Huron County in 1999 and 2000.

She won the Liberal nomination for Huron—Bruce in 2002, and defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Helen Johns in the 2003 election by about 3,000 votes. On October 23, 2003, she was named parliamentary assistant to Steve Peters, the Ontario Minister of Agriculture and Food. In March 2006, Mitchell was named Parliamentary Assistant to David Caplan, the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal.

On January 18, 2010, Mitchell was named Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs as part of a cabinet shuffle by Premier Dalton McGuinty. Prior to that, Premier McGuinty appointed Mitchell as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture and Food in October 2003. In March 2006, she was appointed Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal. Upon re-election in the fall of 2007, Mitchell was named the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, with a concentration on Municipal Affairs.

Mitchell has sat on many committees during her time at Queens Park including the Poverty Reduction Strategy Committee, the Results Table Committee for the Poverty Reduction Strategy, the Health and Social Services Policy Committee, and the Standing Committees on Social Policy, Government Agencies, Finance and Economic Affairs and General Government. She was also an inaugural member of the Rural and Northern Health Panel.

She was defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate Lisa Thompson in the 2011 election.