Dipika Damerla

Dipika Damerla is a Canadian politician in Mississauga, Ontario. She is the current Mississauga City Councillor for Ward 7, the neighbourhood of Cooksville, since her swearing-in on December 3, 2018.^[1][2] Previously, Damerla was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville from 2011 to 2018. She served as Minister of Seniors Affairs in the Cabinet of Premier Kathleen Wynne. On March 7, 2024, Damerla Announced that she would be seeking to be elected Mayor of Mississauga.^[3] She placed third with 19.4%, losing to Carolyn Parrish.^[4]

The Honourable Dipika Damerla ECO
Mississauga City Councillor
Incumbent
Assumed office December 3, 2018[1]
Preceded by	Nando Iannica
Constituency	Ward 7 (Cooksville)
Minister of Seniors Affairs
In office June 13, 2016 – June 28, 2018
Premier	Kathleen Wynne
Preceded by	Mario Sergio
Succeeded by	Raymond Cho
Associate Minister for Long-Term Care and Wellness
In office June 24, 2014 – June 13, 2016
Premier	Kathleen Wynne
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Mississauga East—Cooksville
In office October 6, 2011 – June 7, 2018
Preceded by	Peter Fonseca
Succeeded by	Kaleed Rasheed
Personal details
Born	Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Political party	Independent[a]
Other political affiliations	Liberal
Children	1
Alma mater	University of Toronto
Website	dipikaformayor.ca

Background

Damerla was born in a Telugu family in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh (present day Telangana), India. After emigrating to Canada she earned her MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She worked in corporate banking at the Royal Bank of Canada and the Bank of Nova Scotia. Prior to her first election to the Ontario Legislature she was Senior Policy Advisor to Ontario's Minister of Economic Development and Trade. She lives in Mississauga with her daughter, Sharmeila.^[5]

Provincial politics

Damerla is a member of the Ontario Liberal Party. She won a tough 2011 nomination race to be the Liberal candidate for Mississauga East—Cooksville, beating Nancy Fonseca (the sister of previous Mississauga East—Cooksville MPP Peter Fonseca).^[6] She beat her nearest rival, Progressive Conservative Zoran Churchin by 4,238 votes in the 2011 provincial election.^[7][8]

In November 2011, she was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure.^[9] In April 2012, Damerla introduced a resolution to reform the 1998 Condominium Act. Her resolution would help facilitate disputes between condominium boards and owners. She said that the current system is long and costly. She said, "the act provided a dispute resolution process which was right for that time and the place. However, 14 years later, times have changed. Our province is a very different place now." The resolution passed first reading in June.^[10]

She was re-elected in the 2014 provincial election.^[11]

In June 2014, Damerla was appointed as an Associate Minister (minister without portfolio) for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care focusing on long-term care.^[12] She then succeeded Mario Sergio as Minister responsible for Seniors Affairs, another minister without portfolio position, in a June 13, 2016 cabinet shuffle.^{[citation needed]}

Damerla was appointed Minister of Seniors Affairs, leading a new standalone ministry created from the former Ontario Seniors' Secretariat, on January 12, 2017.^[13]

In the 2018 provincial election, Damerla was defeated in Mississauga East—Cooksville by Progressive Conservative candidate Kaleed Rasheed by a margin of 4739 votes.^[14][15]

Damerla was an early endorser of Steven Del Duca's 2019-20 leadership bid, co-hosting his campaign's first event targeting former Queen's Park staffers with fellow former MPP Han Dong. She contested her former provincial seat again in 2022, closing the gap from 11% to 3.5% (1206 votes margin) but losing again to Rasheed, by then a cabinet minister.

Municipal politics

Following her defeat in the 2018 provincial election, Damerla ran as a candidate to replace long-time Ward 7 Mississauga City Councillor Nando Iannica in the 2018 Mississauga municipal election,^[16] winning easily with 41% of the vote to the runner-up's 16% and became the first new councillor for Ward 7 in over 30 years.^[2] Despite her provincial loss in June 2022, she was re-elected easily later that year with 55% of the vote.

Damerla was one of the four sitting councillors who contested the 2024 mayoral by-election to replace Bonnie Crombie, who resigned after being elected leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in December 2023. Despite polls showing her as a close challenging to frontrunner and eventual winner Carolyn Parrish, Damerla finished third with 19% behind fellow councillor Alvin Tedjo.

Electoral record

Municipal

Mississauga municipal election, 2018: Ward 7[17]
Candidate	Votes	%
Dipika Damerla	4,566	41.25
Andrew Gassmann	1,762	15.92
Leslie Zurek-Silvestri	1,399	12.64
9 other candidates	3,341	30.19
Total	11,068	100.00

Provincial

v t e 2022 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Kaleed Rasheed	13,840	40.91	−0.24
	Liberal	Dipika Damerla	12,634	37.35	+7.11
	New Democratic	Khawar Hussain	3,664	10.83	−11.91
	New Blue	Mark Morrissey	1,599	4.73
	Green	James Hea	1,345	3.98	+0.52
	Ontario Party	Gregory Tomchyshyn	625	1.85
	Moderate	Wiktor Jachtholtz	121	0.36	−0.05
Total valid votes			33,828	100.0
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			222
Turnout			34,050	39.58
Eligible voters			85,958
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		−3.68
Source(s) "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. "Statistical Summary by Electoral District" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023.

v t e 2018 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Kaleed Rasheed	17,862	41.15	+13.22
	Liberal	Dipika Damerla	13,123	30.23	−19.96
	New Democratic	Tom Takacs	9,871	22.74	+7.83
	Green	Basia Krzyzanowski	1,498	3.45	−0.20
	Libertarian	Mark Donaldson	463	1.07	N/A
	None of the Above	Leonard Little	413	0.95	N/A
	Moderate	Mykola Ponomarenko	175	0.40	N/A
Total valid votes			43,405	98.97
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			447	1.03
Turnout			43,852	52.2
Eligible voters			83,122
	Progressive Conservative notional gain from Liberal		Swing		+16.59
Source: Elections Ontario[18]

v t e 2014 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Dipika Damerla	20,934	52.33	+6.59
	Progressive Conservative	Zoran Churchin	10,479	26.20	−7.06
	New Democratic	Fayaz Karim	6,158	15.39	−1.40
	Green	Linh Nguyen	1,408	3.52	+0.97
	Libertarian	Levko Iwanusiw	788	1.97
	Equal Parenting	Dolly Catena	234	0.58
Total valid votes			40,001	100.0
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			557	1.37
Turnout			40,558	43.89
Eligible voters			92,402
	Liberal hold		Swing		+6.83
Source(s) Elections Ontario (2014). "Official Returns from the Records, 048 Mississauga East-Cooksville" (PDF). Retrieved 13 March 2015.

v t e 2011 Ontario general election: Mississauga East—Cooksville
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Dipika Damerla	15,535	45.74	−13.19
	Progressive Conservative	Zoran Churchin	11,297	33.26	+10.18
	New Democratic	Waseem Ahmed	5,704	16.79	+8.33
	Green	Lloyd Jones	934	2.75	−3.50
	Independent	Winston Harding	199	0.59
	Freedom	Jonathon Dury	177	0.52	−0.12
	Paramount Canadians	Shriya Shah-Klorfine	117	0.34
Total valid votes			33,963	100.00
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			191	0.56
Turnout			34,154	40.50
Eligible voters			84,330
	Liberal hold		Swing		−11.69
Source(s) Elections Ontario (2011). "Official return from the records / Rapport des registres officiels - Mississauga East—Cooksville" (PDF). Retrieved 3 June 2014.

Notes

1. Municipal politicians in Ontario run on a non-partisan basis.