Barbara Sullivan

Barbara Sullivan (born January 24, 1943 in Calgary, Alberta) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1987 to 1995.

Sullivan was educated at the Carleton University School of Journalism. She was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1987 provincial election, defeating her Progressive Conservative opponent in Halton Centre by over 6,000 votes amid a landslide Liberal majority at the provincial level. Sullivan was not appointed to the cabinet of David Peterson; she served as government caucus chair,parliamentary assistant from 1988 to 1989, and chair of the Select Committee on Energy in the Ontario legislature.

The Liberals were unexpectedly defeated by the New Democratic Party in the provincial election of 1990. Sullivan retained her riding by 1,215 votes over a challenger from the Progressive Conservatives, and served as her party's Environment Critic and Health Critic from 1991 to 1995.

The riding was a prime target for the Progressive Conservatives in the provincial election of 1995. The Progressive Conservatives won a majority government in the election, and Sullivan lost her constituency to PC candidate Terence Young.

Sullivan attempted to return to the legislature in the 2003 provincial election, in which the Liberals returned to government for the first time since 1990. (The Liberals had initially nominated John Day, but he resigned after being arrested for drunk driving.) She lost to Progressive Conservative incumbent Ted Chudleigh in the redistributed riding of Halton by over 5,000 votes.

Sullivan is currently Chair and CEO of the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council (which provides advice to the Ontario Minister of Health), chair of Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation, one of Canada's major teaching hospitals, and president of the Cheltenham Group. She lives in Burlington, Ontario. She is past chair of the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, and past director of Bird Studies Canada and Oaklands Regional Centre for developmentally disabled adults.