Catherine Fife

Catherine Eileen Fife^[1] (born 1968 or 1969)^[2] is a politician in Ontario, Canada. She is a New Democratic member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who represents the riding of Waterloo. She has been a Member of Provincial Parliament since first winning her seat in the 2012 Kitchener—Waterloo byelection. Since 2025, Fife has served as the chairperson of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians, the first Canadian in the role.^[3]

Catherine Fife MPP
Chair of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians
Incumbent
Assumed office October 7, 2025
Preceded by	Zainab Gimba
Critic, Finance and Treasury Board
Incumbent
Assumed office July 13, 2022
Leader	Marit Stiles
Critic, Jobs, Employment, Research and Innovation
In office August 23, 2018 – June 2, 2022
Leader	Andrea Horwath
Critic, Finance and Treasury Board
In office June 25, 2014 – June 7, 2018
Leader	Andrea Horwath
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Waterloo Kitchener—Waterloo (2012—2018)
Incumbent
Assumed office September 6, 2012
Preceded by	Elizabeth Witmer
Personal details
Born	1968 or 1969 (age 56–57)
Party	New Democratic
Spouse	Dale Fife
Children	2
Residence(s)	Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario
Occupation	Research coordinator

Background

Prior to entering politics, she spent 10 years with the Toronto District School Board as an educational assistant, a school community advisor and a settlement worker for new immigrants. She was the research coordinator for the Partnerships for Children and Families Project at Wilfrid Laurier University. She lives in Kitchener-Waterloo with her husband Dale and their two children^{[citation needed]}.

Politics

Fife was elected to represent Waterloo/Wilmot as a trustee for the Waterloo Region District School Board in 2003, and was re-elected in 2006 and 2010.

In the 2007 provincial election, Fife ran as the New Democrat candidate in the riding of Kitchener—Waterloo. She came in third behind incumbent Progressive Conservative Elizabeth Witmer and Liberal candidate Louise Ervin.^[4]

After Witmer resigned to take a position with the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board, Fife ran in a by-election on September 6, 2012 to replace her. She defeated Progressive Conservative candidate Tracey Weiler by 3,748 votes.^[5][2] She was re-elected in the 2014 provincial election, defeating Liberal candidate Jamie Burton by 3,843 votes.^[6] She was subsequently re-elected in the 2018 and 2022 provincial elections.

She was the party's critic for Jobs, Employment, Research and Innovation and the Chair for Standing Committee on Public Accounts.^[7] As of September 7, 2024, she serves as the Official Opposition critic for Finance and Treasury Board.

Election results

v t e 2025 Ontario general election: Waterloo
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Catherine Fife	25,055	50.23	+4.34	$56,231
	Progressive Conservative	Peter Turkington	13,670	27.40	–1.93	$4,977
	Liberal	Clayton Moore	7,839	15.71	+1.79	$31,031
	Green	Shefaza Esmail	1,814	3.64	–3.38	$15,136
	New Blue	Suja Biber	543	1.09	–1.53	$3,253
	Ontario Party	Chris Martin	477	0.96	+0.16	$0
	Libertarian	James Schulz	325	0.65	N/A	$0
	Electoral Reform	Peter House	161	0.32	+0.09	$0
Total valid votes/expense limit			49,884	99.60	+0.08	$156,321
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			198	0.40	-0.08
Turnout			50,082	53.02	+4.61
Eligible voters			94,451
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+3.1
Source: Elections Ontario[8]

v t e 2022 Ontario general election: Waterloo
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Catherine Fife	20,615	45.89	−4.65	$79,926
	Progressive Conservative	Andrew Aitken	13,176	29.33	−2.08	$55,487
	Liberal	Jennifer Tuck	6,251	13.92	+1.75	$28,468
	Green	Shefaza Esmail	3,110	6.92	+2.09	$7,305
	New Blue	Vladimir Voznyuk	1,178	2.62		$4,970
	Ontario Party	Benjamin Hufnagel	359	0.80		$0
	Communist	Christian Shingiro	130	0.29		$0
	Electoral Reform	Peter House	103	0.23		$0
Total valid votes/expense limit			44,922	99.52	+0.79	$130,920
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			216	0.48	-0.79
Turnout			45,138	48.41	-13.39
Eligible voters			93,522
	New Democratic hold		Swing		−1.29
Source(s) "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-18. "Statistical Summary by Electoral District" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 2023-05-21.

v t e 2018 Ontario general election: Waterloo
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	New Democratic	Catherine Fife	27,315	50.54
	Progressive Conservative	Dan Weber	16,973	31.41
	Liberal	Dorothy McCabe	6,577	12.17
	Green	Zdravko Gunjevic	2,613	4.83
	Libertarian	Andrew Allison	566	1.05
Total valid votes			54,097	100.00
Turnout				64.5
Eligible voters			83,924
	New Democratic pickup new district.
Source: Elections Ontario[9]

v t e 2014 Ontario general election: Kitchener—Waterloo
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Catherine Fife	20,536	37.43	-2.44
	Liberal	Jamie Burton	16,534	30.14	+6.15
	Progressive Conservative	Tracey Weiler	14,450	26.34	-5.49
	Green	Stacey Danckert	2,859	5.21	+1.94
	Libertarian	James Schulz	438	0.78	+0.49
	Freedom	Nicholas Roy	43	0.07	+0.05
Total valid votes			54,860	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			623	1.12
Turnout			55,483	54.95
Eligible voters			100,972
	New Democratic hold		Swing		-4.29
Source(s) Elections Ontario (2014). "Official Returns from the Records, 039 Kitchener—Waterloo" (PDF). Retrieved 23 August 2015.

v t e Ontario provincial by-election, September 6, 2012: Kitchener—Waterloo Resignation of Elizabeth Witmer
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Catherine Fife	18,599	39.87	+23.20
	Progressive Conservative	Tracey Weiler	14,851	31.83	-11.94
	Liberal	Eric Davis	11,194	23.99	-12.05
	Green	Stacey Danckert	1,525	3.27	+0.63
	Libertarian	Allan Dettweiler	156	0.33
	Freedom	David Driver	95	0.20	-0.05
	Communist	Elizabeth Rowley	85	0.18
	Independent	Garnet Bruce	77	0.17
	People's Political Party	Kevin Clarke	48	0.10
	Pauper	John Turmel	23	0.05
Total valid votes			46,653	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			128	0.27
Turnout			46,781	47.00
Eligible voters			99,544
	New Democratic gain from Progressive Conservative		Swing		+17.57
Source(s) Elections Ontario (2012). "Official return from the records / Rapport des registres officiels - Kitchener—Waterloo by-election" (PDF). Retrieved 2 June 2014.

v t e 2007 Ontario general election: Kitchener—Waterloo
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Elizabeth Witmer	20,748	40.84	-2.24
	Liberal	Louise Ervin	15,848	31.20	-9.18
	New Democratic	Catherine Fife	8,902	17.52	+6.58
	Green	Judy Greenwood-Speers	4,707	9.27	+6.08
	Family Coalition	Louis Reitzel	598	1.18	-0.53
Total valid votes			50,803	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			313
Turnout			51,116	53.63
Eligible voters			95,319
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+3.47