Lorraine Michael

Lorraine Michael was born and raised in St. John's.

She started her career as a high school teacher on Bell Island. She was a junior high school principal and teacher as well in Baie Verte, the Codroy Valley, on the Burin Peninsula and in St. John's.

When she left teaching, Lorraine became Director of the Office of Social Action in St. John's where she worked on a number of coalitions for social justice, both regionally and nationally.

She worked with the Toronto-based Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice (ECEJ) which took her to forums in Mexico, Chile and Zimbabwe as a speaker on economic globalization.

She was the Innu Nation nominee on the Voisey's Bay Environmental Assessment Panel from 1997 to 1999. In this capacity she brought a strong socio-economic analysis of the proposed Voisey's Bay nickel mine development.

From 1999 – until she became leader of the Party in May 2006, Lorraine was Executive Director of Women in Resource Development Committee. She partnered with business, labour, government and education to achieve employment equity in the natural resource development sectors in Newfoundland and Labrador.

She has degrees from Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Toronto. When not working, she spends time with her other passion: music. She is a member of the Philharmonic Choir of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra and enjoys playing the piano.

Lorraine was elected as Leader of the NL NDP on May 28, 2006 and elected as MHA for Signal Hill - Quidi Vidi on November 1, 2006. She was re-elected on October 11, 2011.