After five-year federal political run, what's next for Marci Ien?
June 17, 2025
With an office secured and campaign manager in place, Marci Ien was preparing to run in last April’s federal election.
Waking up on International Women’s Day on March 8, she had a change of heart.
“Something in me said not this time,” recounted Ien. “I felt that I was talking to myself that morning. When I called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to inform him of my decision, he said, ‘You served so well, only you can make this decision, I respect any decision you make and thank you’. He then added, ‘Guess I will see you on your next show as I am always around to be a guest’.”
After winning a by-election in October 2020, she was re-elected in September 2021 and appointed to Cabinet a month later as Minister for Women, Gender Equality and Youth.
Under growing pressure from his party, Trudeau announced last January he was stepping down as PM and party leader.
Was Ien’s decision two months later to not seek re-election based on his pending departure?
“No,” she emphatically said. “I was thinking about it before and kept going back and forth. I love the community so much. When I looked at the mandate I had for my portfolio, I had checked every box. The question was, ‘What do I do?’ In the end, my mother’s death played a huge role in my leaving politics.”
Just days before the by-election, Vilna Ien suffered a stroke.
She passed away in September 2024, three weeks before her 86th birthday.
“Mom’s death got me thinking about time and the fact that it is not infinite, where do I want to be and who do I want to spend it with,” Ien said. “The one thing I knew unequivocally is that I wanted to serve, but in what capacity and what does that look like.”
Five days after announcing she was not seeking re-election, she led Canada’s delegation to the 69th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York City from March 10 to 21.
It was Ien’s last official assignment as a federal Minister.
This year’s conference marked the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women where 189 countries adopted the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
“It was amazing leading the national delegation for the last time,” noted Ien. “It was an incredibly powerful time of learning, leading and communion with people who are doing the same work. It was an honour.”
After assuming office a decade ago, Trudeau mandated that his Cabinet would be evenly gender split which was a first in the history of the office.
His inaugural Cabinet comprised Jody Wilson-Raybould as Attorney General and Justice Minister, Carolyn Bennett held the Indigenous & Northern Affairs portfolio, Jane Philpott was Minister of Health, Chrystia Freeland was Minister of International Trade and Melanie Joly was Canadian Heritage Minister.
When Trudeau unveiled a new cabinet in October 2021, women were again in key positions.
Freeland, who was Deputy PM from 2019 to 2024, was Minister of Finance until her resignation last year, Anita Anand headed the national defence ministry and Joly was Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Ien did not hesitate when asked if Trudeau is a feminist.
“Absolutely he is,” said the Toronto Metropolitan University Radio & Television Arts School of Media Walk of Fame inductee. “I am a numbers person. You need not look at that, but what women were doing. When you go through the portfolios, women held senior roles. He saw things through a certain lens and asked questions that way. A lot of those things had to do with women or those who are on the margins.”
Marci Ien was the recipient of a Harry Jerome Award in 2008 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
The death of George Floyd five years ago was a flashpoint for many.
Captured on video, it sparked worldwide protests, renewed racial injustice discussions and triggered personal reflection.
Co-hosting Canada’s top daytime talk show, ‘The Social’, Ien was touched by the powerful visual imagery.
“Though I loved the show I was doing, I started to think if I was in the right place and if I needed to serve in some other way,” she said.
A few weeks later in the summer of 2020, Ien received a phone call from Trudeau’s Chief of Staff Katie Telford.
“She asked if I would consider running and my response was, ‘Katie, run where and run what’,” recalled the award-winning journalist. “Katie said, ‘Running for us’.”
In April 2020, Bill Morneau resigned as Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre.
“Katie said there would be a by-election and wanted to know if I would consider running,” said Ien who is the author of ‘Off Script; Living out Loud’, a moving collection of personal stories and behind-the-scenes reflections of her life and professional career. “That threw me for a loop and I told her I would have to think about it as it had never crossed my mind.”
Though speaking to a few people in her inner circle about the proposition and fielding phone calls from some party members, asking her to consider the request, she was unsure about getting into politics.
A few weeks later while having a Sunday bite with her daughter Blaize, Ien’s phone rang.
“There was a woman at the other end sounding very official,” she said. “When I confirmed it was me, she said, ‘The Prime Minister is on the line’.”
As ‘Canada AM’ news anchor and co-host for 13 years until the national breakfast television news show ended in 2016, Ien had interviewed Trudeau.
Touched by the school shooting in a small Saskatchewan town in January 2016 that left four people dead and seven injured, she and Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri visited the school in La Loche and brought 10 students to Toronto to share their story about the events that significantly impacted their school.
Ien also contacted the Prime Minister’s Office which scheduled a closed-door meeting with the students and Trudeau in the city that lasted 45 minutes.
“He knew me well through the years and said, ‘Listen Marci, you are at the very top of a very short list’,” she revealed. “I said, ‘Prime Minister, you know I am squeaky and I am not changing anytime soon’. I let him know I have opinions and his response was, ‘Yeah, the country needs that voice’.”
After discussions with her two children, other family members and close friends, Ien decided to run in the 2020 by-election where she secured 42 percent of the vote in Toronto Centre that comprises Regent Park which is Canada’s first social housing development, the 2SLGBTQ1+ neighbourhood and the largely immigrant and densely populated St. Jamestown where Ien was born 55 years ago.
An award-winning journalist known for compelling storytelling and amplifying marginalized voices, it is not surprising that strategic frameworks designed to address specific issues affecting vulnerable populations stand out as the highlight of her five-year political run.
Three years ago, the federal government launched the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence in Canada. The 10-year strategic framework focuses on supporting victims, survivors and their families, prevention, a responsive justice system, implementing Indigenous-led approaches and establishing social infrastructure.
“To make the $500,000 plan work, we had to deal with every province and territory in Canada because they have the organizations that help women fleeing violence,” Ien said. “Cutting a deal with each province and territory was challenging. It was tense sometimes, but we got there. Signing those agreements and watching how they work was historic. But more than that, just talking to the people who are impacted by it was fulfilling.”
In August 2022, Ien stood beside Trudeau for the launch of Canada’s first 2SLGBTQ1+ Action Plan. In that year’s budget, $100 million was committed for five years to develop and implement the plan.
“I know people said this is ‘woke’ and whatever,” she said. “But that money goes to grassroots organizations and kids who have been kicked out of their homes and have nowhere to go. When you talk about the heart, those plans helped people who suffer the most and whose voices do not get heard. It is standing up for people who are left out all the time and I am so happy that I was part of that.”
With carnival being a powerful symbol of culture in Trinidad & Tobago where Ien’s parents were born, culture is close to her heart.
In 2023, she fiercely advocated for a $3.5 million funding commitment over two years for the Toronto Festival Committee, the organizers of the annual Toronto Caribbean Carnival.
Ien’s godfather, Jamaican-born dentist and entrepreneur Maurice Bygrave who came to Toronto in 1954 to join his parents, co-founded North America’s largest street festival in 1967.
“While in Rwanda at a women’s conference, I got calls that the festival was in dire financial straits,” she said. “I advocated hard for funding and Kamal Khera, who was then Minister of Diversity, Inclusion & Persons with Disabilities, got it done.”
Ien also pushed for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), under Cameron Bailey’s leadership, to get a $10 million non-repayable investment to support the festival’s in-person return after the pandemic.
The 11-day festival attracts almost 700,000 attendees and generates more than $114 million in economic activity in the region.
“When you think about the money that TIFF brings into the country and how important the arts are, it was important that the festival survive,” she said.
Marci Ien at the 2024 University of the West Indies Toronto fundraising gala (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
Family means much to Ien who is still grieving her mother’s death.
The matriarch was an accountant and Agincourt Pentecostal Church’s first woman deacon.
“There was a quiet power to her,” said Ien who, in 2008, travelled to Sierra Leone on behalf of Journalists for Human Rights and led training workshops for reporters. “At her funeral, people who we did not know came forward with stories about her and how she helped them. She was kind, open and led by example. My parents could not afford to pursue higher education at the same time. So dad went first and she started her career later. Though she was a clerk with the provincial government, she aspired to be an accountant. While she worked, she studied and became a CGA (Certified General Accountant) in her 40s before serving as a tax auditor with the Ontario government for 25 years. Her work ethic was off the charts.”
A retired Toronto District School Board principal and superintendent, Joel Ien suffered a few strokes and is bedridden.
As season ticket holders, he and his daughter attended Toronto Raptors basketball home games for nearly two decades.
“I get very sad during the basketball season because that was our thing,” said Ien who was a CTV reporter based in the Atlantic bureau for three years before joining Canada AM.
What does the future hold for the celebrated media practitioner who, in 2018, was listed among Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women?
“I think I have a bit of broadcasting and writing left in me,” said Ien who made her first TV appearance as a 10-year-old in ‘Circle Square’, a children’s television show. “I am not sure if it will be one thing or a collection of many things that I end up doing. I will know it when I see it. Each place that I have been has led me to the next and given me a certain skill set. So I am excited about what might come next and what that looks like. I guess it might be Marci 5.0.”
