Mylene Freeman

Background

She grew up fluently bilingual. She is the daughter of an Irish Canadian father and a French Canadian mother.

Education

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University, where she studied political theory.

Career

She was elected in the 2011 Canadian federal election after defeating incumbent Mario Laframboise of the Bloc Québécois. Born March 7, 1989 in Stouffville, Ontario, she is fluent in both French and English. She was co-president of NDP McGill (the New Democratic Party student group at the university) and coordinator of the university"s Women in House program, which has young women shadow female MPs in hopes of fostering their interest in getting involved in politics.

Freeman described her victory in 2011 as "very surreal" when she defeated powerful Bloc Québécois Member of Parliament Mario Laframboise by 8,000 votes in Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel.

In the 2009 Montreal municipal election, Freeman stood on behalf of Projet Montréal in Outremont as a candidate for borough councillor in Claude-Ryan. She was one of five McGill students, alongside Charmaine Borg, Laurin Liu, Matthew Dubé and Jamie Nicholls, elected to Parliament in the 2011 election following the NDP"s unexpected mid-campaign surge in Quebec.

In the 2015 election, Dubé was reelected while Freeman and the other three were defeated. In 2015 she was named opposition critic for the status of women.

Source: Elections Canada

Mylène was defeated in the 2015 election by Simon Marcil of the Bloc Québecois.

Achievements

• While Freeman was a former co-president of NDP McGill, Borg and Dubé were the incumbent co-presidents of NDP McGill at the time that they both won election to Parliament and spent the campaign working to re-elect Thomas Mulcair in the nearby riding of Outremont.