Bhutila Karpoche
Bhutila Karpoche is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2018 provincial election. She represents the riding of Parkdale—High Park. She is the official opposition mental health and addictions critic.
She is the first person of Tibetan descent ever elected to public office in North America.Background
Karpoche was born in Nepal and moved to the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale as a child with her family.
Prior to her election, Karpoche worked for Cheri DiNovo, her predecessor as member of provincial parliament for Parkdale-High Park, first in DiNovo's constituency office and more recently as her executive assistant at Queens Park. She also served on the board of directors of the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario, and on the steering committee of the International Tibet Network.
She holds a Masters of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health and is currently a PhD candidate in Public Health Policy at Ryerson University.Career
On September 14, 2017, the Parkdale—High Park New Democratic Party riding association nominated Karpoche as the party's candidate in the upcoming general election. She won the election on June 7, 2018 with 59.41% support from voters.
Upon being sworn in as an MPP, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath appointed Karpoche as deputy opposition whip and mental health and addictions critic. In a shadow cabinet shuffle on August 30, 2019, the deputy opposition whip was passed to Doly Begum.
In 2019, she was voted Toronto's Best Local Politician by Toronto Star readers and Best MPP by Now Magazine readers.Electoral record
