Radio Regent (Audio): MARCI IEN, THE NEW MP FOR TORONTO CENTRE
In this episode of Radio Regent, reporter Dimitrije Martinovic, introduces Regent Park and Toronto Centre to their new Member of Parliament. On September 17, 2020, Marci Ien was announced as the Liberal candidate for the by-election to the 43rd Canadian Parliament for Toronto Centre, following the resignation of Bill Morneau. Marci won the by-election on October 26, 2020, defeating Green Party of Canada leader Annamie Paul and NDP candidate Brian Chang.
Marci Ien is a Black Canadian of Trinidadian descent. Ien graduated with a degree in radio and television arts from Ryerson University in 1991. She began her journalism career at CHCH-TV in Hamilton, Ontario in 1991 as a news writer and general assignment reporter. In 1995 she began reporting from Queen's Park in Toronto, with her reports appearing both on CHCH's local news and on WIC's national newscast Canada Tonight. In 1997 she moved to CTV as a reporter for CTV Atlantic, covering major stories including the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. In 1995, Ien won a Radio Television Digital News Association Award for her news serial Journey to Freedom, a look at the Underground Railroad. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Black Business and Professional Association Harry Jerome Award in the media category. In 2014, she was granted the Planet Africa Award for excellence in media. In 2015, Ien garnered a Canadian Screen Award nomination in the Best Host category for her work on Canada AM. In 2016, she was honored with an African Canadian Achievement Award for her journalistic achievements.
As the new MP for the riding Toronto Centre (which includes Moss Park, Regent Park, Cabbage Town, Church-Wellesley Village, and St. Jamestown), Marci Ien is keenly aware that the coronavirus pandemic has drawn out the systemic inequalities that underscore the lives of many low-income people, indigenous people, immigrants, homeless people and people living with mental health and substance abuse issues. Attending to these matters Marci intends to continue listening to what her constituents are saying to her, to pool the resources of many of the already existing social service providers, and to better channel initiatives that might be coming from Federal, Provincial, and Municipal coffers to the hard-hit neighbourhoods of the area.
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