Amanda Simard

Simard grew up in Embrun, Ontario, in her riding, where she lives along with her family, who have been there for centuries. She worked throughout her high school, college, and university years, and worked full-time while simultaneously attending law school full-time. She held down two jobs in high school and paid her own way through law school, graduating from the University of Ottawa in 2013.

Shortly after graduation, she was elected as a municipal councillor in the Township of Russell.[5] During her time on council, she was the Chair of the Public Library Board, the Parks, Recreation and Culture Advisory Committee and the Recreation Complex ad-hoc Committee.

Simard is a graduate of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. She worked at the Parliament of Canada from 2009 to 2017. After graduating from law school, she ran for public office, postponing plans to get called to the bar in Ontario. [6][7]

Simard is fluently bilingual in both French and English.[8]

Simard left the Ontario PC Party on November 29, 2018, to sit as an independent when Premier Doug Ford eliminated the province's French-language services commissioner and cancelled plans for a French language university.[2] When the government would announce that they would be commissioner position within the office of the provincial ombudsman, establish a Ministry of Francophone Affairs and hire a senior policy adviser on francophone affairs in the premier’s office. She found the decisions to be a form of "partial backtracking".[9]

On January 16, 2020, Simard joined the Ontario Liberal Party. [10]

On May 8, 2020, she was named the Ontario Liberal Party Critic for Francophone Affairs, Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries, and Small Business and Red Tape Reduction. [11]

• Amanda Simard on Twitter