Melissa Lantsman

Melissa Lantsman is a Canadian public relations consultant and politician who is currently the Conservative Party's candidate for the district of Thornhill (electoral district) in the 2021 Canadian federal election. She previously worked as a communications advisor to several cabinet members in the 28th Canadian Ministry of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissalantsman/ From 2015 to 2018, she was a communications advisor to the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario and its chief spokesperson during the 2018 Ontario general election|2018 Ontario provincial election. Lantsman was previously Vice President for National Public Affairs at Enterprise Canada, a strategic communications firm.
In 2020, upon the retirement of Peter Kent from parliament, Lantsman announced her intention to seek the federal Conservative nomination from Thornhill (electoral district). She defeated the incumbent Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament (Canada)|Member of Provincial Parliament, Gila Martow, to become the riding's Conservative candidate on April 3, 2021.
== Early Life and Education ==
Lantsman was born in Thornhill in 1984 to a Russian Jewish family. Her father was a nuclear engineer who ran several pawn establishments in Thornhill. She attended a French immersion school in the York Region and speaks French in addition to English and Russian.
In 2004, she began attending the University of Toronto and graduated with an Bachelor of Arts. She later completed the Institute of Corporate Directors education programme at the Rotman School of Management in 2007.
== Career ==
As a teenager, Lantsman volunteered for Conservative Party candidates in local elections. During the 2008 Canadian federal election, she was appointed a senior communications advisor, with the Party forming a minority government. Thereafter, she was appointed Director of Communications for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Ministers Maxime Bernier, Lawrence Cannon and John Baird (Canadian politician), serving from 2008 to 2011. From 2011 to 2012, she was the Director of Communications of the Prime Minister's Office (Canada), and accompanied Prime Minister Stephen Harper on domestic and foreign visits.
After a brief stint at Coca Cola as a Senior Public Affairs advisor from 2012 to 2013, Lantsman returned to government as Director of Communications for the Ministry of Finance under Minister Joe Oliver. Following the Harper Government's loss of the 2015 Canadian federal election, Lantsman returned to the private sector as a Senior Director for CIBC|CIBC Capital Markets.
In 2018, Lantsman served as Director of Communications for Ontario MPP Caroline Mulroney's candidacy for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Following Mulroney's loss, Lantsman joined the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario's campaign for the 2018 Ontario general election as its chief spokesperson and war room director. In this role, she oversaw all press communications and social media releases by the campaign. The election resulted in a majority government for the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, the first since 2002 after 16 years of Liberal Government in Ontario. Following the election, Lantsman joined Hill+Knowlton Strategies, an international public relations strategy firm, at their Toronto office. In 2020, she joined Enterprise Canada, a strategic public relations consultancy, as its Vice President for National Public Affairs. She relinquished her partnership in Enterprise in 2021 to focus on her political candidacy.
Since 2019, Lantsman has appeared on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's CBC News as a political panellist and has hosted a radio show on CFRB 1010 AM. She presently sits on the board of the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto.
== Political Candidacy ==
In 2020, Conservative then-Member of Parliament for Thornhill, Peter Kent, announced that he would not seek re-election at the 2021 Canadian federal election. Kent had represented the electoral district since 2008, which is considered by observers to be a 'safe seat' for the party, with the highest proportion of Jewish residents in Canada at 37%. 
Lantsman announced her candidacy for the Conservative nomination in the district on November 27, 2020. Her candidacy was endorsed by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, former federal Ministers John Baird (Canadian politician), Joe Oliver, Pierre Poilievre, Rona Ambrose, Michelle Rempel Garner and Lisa Raitt, as well as incumbent Ontario provincial ministers Caroline Mulroney, Stephen Lecce, Greg Rickford and Paul Calandra. She also received endorsements from federal and provincial Conservative legislators, including Eric Duncan (politician), Stan Cho, Roman Baber and Vijay Thanigasalam.
Lantsman faced the incumbent Member of Provincial Parliament for Thornhill, Gila Martow, in the nomination contest. She participated in a series of nomination debates with Martow between December 2020 and March 2021. On April 3, 2021, Lantsman defeated Martow in the nomination election and was certified as the Conservative candidate for Thornhill. She is currently facing Liberal candidate Gary Gladstone in the general election scheduled for September 20, 2021.
== Personal life ==
Lantsman is openly lesbian and married Lauren Rakowski, a Toronto-area lawyer, in 2018. Together, they own two homes in Toronto and Thornhill, and a cottage in the Muskoka region.
 
Category:Canadian political consultants
Category:Canadian politicians
Category:1984 births