Raymonde Folco

Raymonde Folco (née Goldgrav; born March 16, 1940) is a Canadian politician, member of the Liberal Party of Canada. She represented the Quebec riding of Laval—Les Îles in the House of Commons of Canada through 5 successive parliaments from 1997 to 2011, when she left politics.

Born in Paris in 1940 to a Jewish family, she survived the Holocaust being hidden by Christian families outside the city; her father escaped an Auschwitz-bound transport and both her parents fought in the French Resistance.

During her time in Parliament Folco has held several leadership roles that have focused on immigration and women: elected vice-chair of the Permanent Committee on Immigration, chair of the Liberal Caucus on immigration, co-chair of the Women's Day at the Liberal Party National Congresses 2003 and 1994.

From 2004 to 2011 she was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Human Resources. In 2000 she was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Human Resources, with special emphasis on immigration and labour markets and chaired the Quebec Liberal Caucus.

In opposition, she was named Official Opposition Critic for immigration from 2006 to 2007 and travelled extensively to advocate for greater coordination between federal and provincial legislations and regulations on labour market and immigration.

She was frequently called upon to deal directly with foreign governments, as chair of the Parliamentary Association for the Caribbean, and from 2006 to 2011 as Official Liberal Critic for La Francophonie.

She was elected vice-chair of the Inter-American Parliamentary Group on Population and Development (IAPG) where, under her chairmanship, the Canadian Association of Parliamentarians for Population and Development (CAPPD) organized and hosted the 2010 Global Annual Parliamentarians' Summit: Balancing the Scales of Women's Lives in the Countdown to 2015.

After politics

Since her departure from federal politics, Folco has remained active and a prominent supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada.

She has travelled to Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Vancouver, giving a series of lectures dealing with Women in Politics, Immigration, language legislation in Canada.

Folco worked as a consultant for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) as Senior Program Manager for Gender Programming in Mali and with UNWomen, as Senior Election Expert in preparation for the general elections.

Electoral record

October 2008, Laval—Les Îles

Candidate Party Vote % Zahia El-Masri New Democratic Party 6,124 11.5 Agop Evereklian Conservative Party of Canada 11,017 20.6 Raymonde Folco Liberal Party of Canada 21,603 40.5 Mohamedali Jetha Bloc Québécois 12,576 23.6 Brent Neil Green Party of Canada 1,752 3.3 Sylvain A. Trottier 336 0.6 Total 53,408 100

January 2006, Laval—Les Îles

Candidate Party Vote % Raymonde Folco Liberal Party of Canada 20,849 39.3 Alain Giguère New Democratic Party 3,817 7.2 Qais Hamidi Conservative Party of Canada 9,055 17.1 Theodore Kouretas Green Party of Canada 1,557 2.9 Christiane Pichette Bloc Québécois 17,537 33.1 Polyvios Tsakanikas Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada 211 0.4 Total 53,026 100