- Maggie Laidlaw
Maggie Laidlaw is a city councillor serving on Ward 3 in the City of
Guelph ,Ontario Laidlaw was first elected to ward 3 in 2000. [ [http://guelph.ca City Of Guelph ] ] She survived the 2003 election being labled as one of "Karen's 7" which was a reference to the core group always voting against Wal-Mart. During the 2003-2006 term of council Maggie was most noted for her debates with former mayor
Kate Quarrie . The first heated council meeting was on March 1st 2004. Maggie questioned her name and several other councillor's names being removed from the agenda. She stated the names were those who voted against the development charges.Kate Quarrie ended the meeting leaving CouncillorGloria Kovach with a Notice of Motion on the floor. This debate has been posted on youtube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKf25yh6iQo]Background
Like many residents of Guelph, Maggie is an immigrant to Canada. She was born and raised in Scotland, and moved to Canada with her parents and six siblings in 1967, Centennial year. Taking advantage of that historic year for Canada, Maggie spent the summer of 1967 as a 17-year-old mother's helper in Montreal and visiting Expo 67 every Sunday, her day off.
After training and working as a medical laboratory technologist in Brantford and overseas in Australia and New Zealand, Maggie met her husband David when they were both part of a group taking part in a cross-Canada bicycle tour to promote the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. They spent the next 4 years in Toronto before returning to David's home-town to attend the University of Guelph in 1980.
Guelph was a natural choice for them, partly because Maggie's family live not far away in Cambridge, but primarily because David's family roots are in Guelph. David's grandparents Richard and Grace Laidlaw owned a store on Ontario Street for many years, in Ward 1 ("the ward," as it was called), and they also once owned 17 Kent Street, one of the city's historic homes just above the railway tracks in Ward 3. David's father attended GCVI and, after becoming a psychiatrist, returned to Guelph for several years to work at the Homewood Sanitarium
Education
Laidlaw has a BASc. and an M.Sc. from the University of Guelph. She is currently completing her Ph.D. In Human Nutrition.
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
