Joan Beatty

Joan Beatty (born 1940) is a Canadian politician. She was the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (NDP) member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for the constituency of Cumberland. On January 3, 2008 she was appointed the Liberal Party of Canada's candidate for the House of Commons of Canada in Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River for the March 17, 2008 by-election.

However, she lost the federal by-election to Conservative candidate Rob Clarke. She was born in 1940, at Deschambault Lake, Saskatchewan.

Provincial career A former CBC journalist,

Federal politics In 2007 she was approached by both the federal NDP and the federal Liberal party to run in the Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River by-election. Beatty told the press that she would decide by January 2008 whether she will run federally and for which party. On January 3, 2008 Beatty was selected as the Liberal candidate for the riding. She accepted the Liberals' offer and was appointed the party's candidate by leader Stéphane Dion on January 3.

Beatty defended her decision to switch from the provincial NDP to the federal Liberals saying that the Liberals have a better chance of taking power and "the one thing that I have found out [is] that you have to be in government to have say when it comes to policy or budget decisions or raising issues at that level."

National Liberal campaign co-chair David Smith defended Beatty's appointment by saying that Dion had made getting more women into politics a priority, saying that the party is "prepared to bite the bullet to demonstrate that our commitment to increasing our number of women candidates - particularly well-qualified ones - is very real." Orchard won the nomination.

Electoral record NDP Joan Beatty

NDP Joan Beatty

Progressive Conservative Ari Avivi