Penny Priddy (born March 5, 1944 in Toronto, Ontario) is a politician from British Columbia, Canada. Originally a nurse, she moved from Ontario to Surrey in 1981 where she worked as a nursing educator. After five years as a school trustee on Surrey's school board, she ran in the 1991 provincial election as a British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate in Surrey-Newton, defeating Premier Rita Johnston to win the riding. She subsequently served in several cabinet posts including Women's Equality, Tourism and Culture, Health, Labour and Children and Families in the NDP governments of Mike Harcourt, Glen Clark and Ujjal Dosanjh.
In 1996 she was treated for breast cancer and made a full recovery.
She did not run in the 2001 British Columbia election, but returned to politics in 2002 when she was elected to Surrey City Council.
From 2006 to 2008 she was the federal NDP Member of Parliament for the riding of Surrey North, which was represented by independent Chuck Cadman until his death from cancer. Despite differing views from Cadman, she had been friends with him and his wife Dona. Dona Cadman later endorsed Priddy for the Surrey North seat, considered by some to be the deciding factor in her victory over Conservative candidate David Matta.
Priddy is the only woman in Canadian history to be elected to school board, city council, a provincial legislature and the House of Commons. She is past co-chair of the Women's Campaign School and she is a member of the Canadian Women Voters Congress and Canadian Women of Municipal Government.
In 2001 Priddy was awarded an honourary Doctorate of Law degree from Kwantlen University College for her service to the people of BC.
Priddy did not run in the 40th Canadian federal election.
Famous quotes containing the word penny:
“I had not given a penny for a song
Did not the poet sing it with such airs
That one believed he had a sword upstairs;
Yet would be now, could I but have my wish,
Colder and dumber and deafer than a fish.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)