Peggy Nash, Unifor Ethics Task Force Chairperson

Peggy Nash is an educator, author and long-time advocate for workers’ rights and social justice in Canada and internationally. Her recent book Women Winning Office: An Activist’s Guide to Getting Elected is on the Independent bookstores bestseller list.

Nash was a senior negotiator with the Canadian Auto Workers (now Unifor) and the first union woman in North America to lead negotiations with a major auto company. She also created pioneering leadership programs for women, and innovative policies on human rights.

She was a leadership candidate for the federal New Democratic Party and inspired the involvement of many new activists. Elected multiple times as an NDP candidate and twice as a Member of Parliament, she served as Official Opposition Finance Critic and Industry Critic.

Nash was a founding member of Equal Voice, which advocates for gender equality in public office, and she is co-founder of the ground-breaking Toronto Metropolitan University Women in the House program where she serves as a senior advisor to the Dean of Arts. In addition to her work as an educator in Canada, she has served as an election observer and educator in countries such as Ukraine, Lebanon, Niger, Ghana, Haiti, South Africa, and the DRC.

She has been named to the Order of Canada, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brock University, and has been named a YWCA Woman of Distinction.

Nash is a frequent media commentator in English and French on political, social and economic issues. She lives in Toronto, and she and her partner Carl Kaufman have three sons and two grandchildren