# 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. 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. She placed third with 19.4%, losing to Carolyn Parrish.

## Background

Damerla was born in a Telugu-speaking 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.

## 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). She beat her nearest rival, Progressive Conservative Zoran Churchin by 4,238 votes in the 2011 provincial election.
In November 2011, she was appointed as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure. 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.
She was re-elected in the 2014 provincial election.
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. She then succeeded Mario Sergio as Minister responsible for Seniors Affairs, another minister without portfolio position, in a June 13, 2016 cabinet shuffle.
Damerla was appointed Minister of Seniors Affairs, leading a new standalone ministry created from the former Ontario Seniors' Secretariat, on January 12, 2017.
In the 2018 provincial election, Damerla was defeated in Mississauga East—Cooksville by Progressive Conservative candidate Kaleed Rasheed by a margin of 4739 votes.
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, 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. 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 :
| 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

vte2022 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 | Total valid votes | Total valid votes | 33,828 | 100.0 |
| Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots | Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots | Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots | 222 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 34,050 | 39.58 |
| Eligible voters | Eligible voters | Eligible voters | 85,958 |
| | Progressive Conservative hold | Progressive Conservative hold | Swing | 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. |||||||
vte2018 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 | Total valid votes | Total valid votes | 43,405 | 98.97 |
| Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 447 | 1.03 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 43,852 | 52.2 |
| Eligible voters | Eligible voters | Eligible voters | 83,122 |
| | Progressive Conservative notional gain from Liberal | Progressive Conservative notional gain from Liberal | Swing | Swing | +16.59 |
| Source: Elections Ontario |||||||
vte2014 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 | Total valid votes | Total valid votes | 40,001 | 100.0 |
| Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 557 | 1.37 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 40,558 | 43.89 |
| Eligible voters | Eligible voters | Eligible voters | 92,402 |
| | Liberal hold | Liberal hold | Swing | Swing | +6.83 |
| Source(s) Elections Ontario (2014). "Official Returns from the Records, 048 Mississauga East-Cooksville" (PDF). Retrieved 13 March 2015. |||||||
vte2011 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 | Total valid votes | Total valid votes | 33,963 | 100.00 |
| Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots | 191 | 0.56 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 34,154 | 40.50 |
| Eligible voters | Eligible voters | Eligible voters | 84,330 |
| | Liberal hold | Liberal hold | Swing | 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. |||||||