Anita Vandenbeld

Vandenbeld was Senior Parliamentary Advisor with UNDP and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.[5]

Vandenbeld worked with the United Nations Development Programme Democratic Governance Group in New York, where she managed a multi-partner international network to promote women's political participation International Knowledge Network of Women in Politics.[6] Vandenbeld was also Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of the Central Assembly and Political Parties Section of the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe Mission in Kosovo. In 2008, she was awarded the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal for her work there. Vandenbeld coordinated an anti-corruption campaign with the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and worked on parliamentary development in the Balkans with the Ottawa-based Parliamentary Centre, a Canadian non-profit, non-partisan organization that provides support to parliaments around the world.[7]

Vandenbeld was posted with UNDP in Bangladesh as a technical specialist on parliamentary committees. Prior to that Anita was resident director in the National Democratic Institute office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where she established a political party program during the November 2011 Congolese elections.[8] Anita Vandenbeld has worked on democratic development and women's political participation in over 20 countries, including authoring a study on women's political participation in Vietnam and having worked with NDI conducting a women's political leadership academy in Haiti.[9]

Anita is a contributing author to the Oxford Handbook of Transnational Feminist Movements.[10] Vandenbeld is a member of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy. Vandenbeld was also a board member at the Parliamentary Centre, a Canadian NGO that does parliamentary development globally, and she was a founding board member of the Centre for Democratic and Participatory Governance in Brussels.[11]

Vandenbeld was previously Director of Parliamentary Affairs in the Office of the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and oversaw the development and implementation of the Government of Canada's Democratic Reform Action Plan under the Minister responsible for Democratic Reform. She was also a Policy Analyst with the National Liberal Caucus Research Bureau in the Canadian Parliament, Chief of staff to a Canadian Senator, and chapter development chair for Equal Voice, a Canadian multi-partisan organization to promote women in politics.[12]

Vandenbeld won a contested nomination to be the Liberal Party of Canada candidate for Ottawa West-Nepean for the 2011 Canadian federal election on November 28, 2010.[13] Vandenbeld was defeated by incumbent MP and Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird.

Vandenbeld again sought the Ottawa West-Nepean nomination for the 2015 Canadian federal election, winning a contested nomination against two other candidates on November 2, 2014.[7] Her election campaign was successful when Baird withdrew from politics, winning the seat with 56% of the vote on October 19, 2015. Her 35,199 votes represented the 5th highest vote total of any Liberal candidate in Ontario and the highest vote count for a female candidate in Ontario.[14]

In her first term, Vandenbeld was the Chair of the National Liberal Women's Caucus from 2015 to September 2018 and sat on the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. In March, 2016, she was elected as Chair of the Special Committee on Pay Equity[15] following the adoption of a motion by the House of Commons from the New Democratic Party to close the gap in pay between men and women which contributes to income inequality and discriminates against women, accept pay equity as a human right, accept the recommendations of the 2004 Pay Equity Task Force Report. The final report, "It's Time to Act[16]" was tabled on June 9, 2016.

On July 29, 2018 [17] Anita Vandenbeld was nominated as the candidate for re-election in the 2019 Canadian federal election by the Liberal Party of Canada. She was elected with 45.6% of the votes.

In her second term, Vandenbeld chaired the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Humans Rights [18] and sat on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development[19] and on the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics.[20]

On December 12, 2019 Vandenbeld was appointed by the Prime Minister as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence.[4]

Vandenbeld was investigated in 2018 by the Ethics Commissioner for possible violation of the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons during the 2018 Ottawa municipal election 2018 Ottawa municipal election campaign by endorsing her husband.[21]

On July 10, 2019, the Ethics Commissioner released his final report [22] and recommended that "no sanction be imposed because it was apparent to me that Ms. Vandenbeld’s failure to comply with section 11 of the Code occurred through an error in judgment made in good faith. She had made significant efforts to comply with the rules that she had considered, namely the Members By-law of the House of Commons’ Board of Internal Economy. She expressed a sincere belief that running for public office did not engage private interests. She also immediately stopped all of her campaign activities upon seeking and obtaining my advice in October 2018."[23]