Pat Perkins

Patricia "Pat" Perkins (born September 3, 1953) is a Scottish-Canadian politician. Perkins served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Whitby—Oshawa from 2014 to 2015. She was elected in a by-election held on November 17, 2014 following the death of Jim Flaherty.

Prior to being elected to the House of Commons of Canada, Perkins was a Whitby, Ontario municipal councillor from 1997 until 2006 when she challenged incumbent mayor Marcel Brunelle, defeating him by less than 200 votes in the 2006 municipal election. Perkins served as mayor of Whitby for two terms from 2006 to 2014. She did not run for reelection to the mayoralty in the 2014 municipal election, due to the pending federal byelection.

Perkins was a member of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources and the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

However, her term as an MP would be short-lived, as she was defeated in the federal election the following year in the redistricted riding of Whitby by Celina Caesar-Chavannes, whom she had earlier defeated in the by-election.