Joe Volpe

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This article is about Joe Volpe, the Canadian Politician. For information about Joseph Volpe, opera manager, see Joseph Volpe (opera)

Giuseppe (Joseph) Volpe, PC, MP (born September 21, 1947) is a Canadian politician. He has served in the Canadian House of Commons since 1988, and was Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in Paul Martin's Cabinet.

Born in Monteleone, Puglia, Italy, he graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts (1970), a Bachelor of Education (1971) and a Master of Education (1980). From 1971 to 1974, he was a teacher in Stoney Creek. From 1974 to 1979, he was head of the history department at a secondary school in Etobicoke. From 1979 to 1982, he was head of multicultural studies in a college in Weston, Ontario. He was then a mortgage development officer from 1982 until 1983, when he became vice-principal and co-founder of the J.M. McGuigan Secondary School. He held this position until 1988.

He ran for the seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1981 Ontario provincial election, but lost to New Democratic Party incumbent Odoardo Di Santo in Downsview. He also ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Ontario Liberal Party in 1985.

In 1988, Volpe successfully challenged incumbent Liberal MP Rev. Roland de Corneille in a bitter Liberal nomination battle in Eglinton—Lawrence.

He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1988 federal election. He was re-elected in the 1993, 1997, 2000, and 2004 elections, always by a significant margin.

Volpe supported Paul Martin's bid for the Liberal Party leadership in 1990, and was for many years a leading Martin supporter in Toronto. Many believe he was kept out of Jean Chrétien's cabinet for this reason.

When Martin became Prime Minister of Canada on December 12, 2003, he appointed Volpe as Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development. He held this position until January 2005, when he was named Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, taking over the portfolio from Judy Sgro.

In the 2006 federal election, Volpe was easily re-elected. However, as the Liberal Party was defeated, he was forced to step down as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration under Martin, Volpe announced his candidacy for the Liberal leadership on April 21, 2006. His top priorities will include reinvigorating the party to get it back "on a professional keel." He will aim to "make it a good corporate institution that it's been and the nation-building institution that it has always proved to be." Volpe's main campaign themes are expected to include, making education and training a higher priority and improving the system for accommodating immigrants, planks that draw on his cabinet experience as human-resources minister and immigration minister. He is supported by Liberal MPs Jim Karygiannis, Wajid Khan, Yasmin Ratansi, Sukh Dhaliwal, Joe Comuzzi, Massimo Pacetti, and Lui Temelkovski.[1]