The Leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Dominique Anglade, introduced the Liberal candidate for the riding of a Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Désirée McGraw in the 2022 general elections.
“Between now and the general elections, the citizens of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce will have an opportunity to meet our remarkable Liberal candidate, Désirée McGraw. Ms. McGraw is involved in her community, a social entrepreneur and a mother, and has worked for several years to protect the environment, for education and to get young generations involved in public life. Thanks to her environmental leadership and her expertise in international cooperation, her candidacy is a great addition to the 2022 Liberal team. Désirée McGraw will be able to ambitiously and skillfully respond to her fellow citizens’ concerns.”
– Dominique Anglade, Leader of the Quebec Liberal Party
“Notre-Dame-de-Grâce is not just my home, it’s the community that I hold dear. I dedicated a significant portion of my professional life to environmental causes. I had the opportunity to work with exceptional leaders like Maurice Strong, David Suzuki, Elizabeth May and Al Gore. Having co-founded the Climate Reality Project for Canada here in Montreal, I am keenly aware of the need for ambitious public policies for the environment. We can’t put off meeting our goals any longer. Dominique Anglade has a solid plan to combine the environment and the economy. If I am elected, I will work hard every day to serve the interests and aspirations of my fellow citizens in NDG. I would also like to thank Ms. Kathleen Weil for her 14 years of service to the citizens of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and for her tireless work and dedication. I am committed to continuing her remarkable work for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.”
– Désirée McGraw, Quebec Liberal Party Candidate for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in 2022
Culminating 25 years of a career in the public and non-profit sectors, Désirée McGraw will take action on environmental protection, education and inclusion in NDG.
Named “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum in 2010, among the 100 most influential women in Canada by the Financial Post and named one of eight key women by Quebec’s Première en Affaires, Désirée McGraw was a senior policy advisor for international cooperation within Paul Martin’s administration between 2003 and 2006, as well as interim chief of Staff and Policy Director for the Minister of International Cooperation. The candidate tackled ambitious mandates mobilizing various stakeholders around a common vision.
Ms. McGraw has dedicated a major portion of her professional life to environmental causes, having worked with international environmental protection leaders such as Maurice Strong, David Suzuki, Elizabeth May and Al Gore. She was the co-founder of the Climate Reality Project for Canada in Montreal, President and Director General of the Aqua Forum organization which aims to get young people involved in developing innovative solutions for addressing Canada’s freshwater issues.
In 2017, the Liberal candidate was appointed by Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change as a special advisor to the CCICED. Désirée was also a member of several Canadian delegations to the United Nations, including the Nairobi Convention on Biodiversity in 2000 and the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto. Thanks to her experience in governmental relations and her dedication to the environment, Désirée McGraw will be able to foster collaboration among various sectors, disciplines, regions and generations in the fight against climate change.
Selected to participate in the Governor General of Canada’s Leadership Conference in 2015, Désirée McGraw has dedicated her professional life to recruiting, training and working in partnership with the next generation of leaders to take action for the environment, diversity and equity in Canada and around the world, including as the CEO of the Jeanne Sauvé Foundation in Montreal from 2008 to 2015. As a special advisor to Philanthropic Foundations of Canada, she took part in the development of “Canadian Philanthropic Engagement on Climate Change.”
She worked as an environmental journalist and researcher for the United Nations from 1993 to 1997 and was a youth ambassador at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. As the former rector of Pearson College from 2015 to 2019, education is one of the main reasons that motivated her leap into active politics. She would like to contribute to building an education system that fosters collaboration, innovation and inclusion.
In addition to her university studies in Canada and abroad as a Commonwealth Scholar at the London School of Economics, the candidate from Notre-Dame-de-Grâce also completed leadership training at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, at the Jackson School of International Affairs at Yale and the Désautels Management School at McGill.
Committed to her Montreal community, Désirée McGraw has been involved in a wealth of social issues and as part of several community organizations, namely the Montreal Millennium Summit, OXFAM-Québec, the Montreal-West Environmental Action Committee, the Queen Elizabeth Health Complex and Head and Hands for youth wellness.
