NDP MP Jinny Sims holds a black belt in judo and is an accomplished fencer -- and was first elected in the spring of 2011 in the B.C. riding of Newton-North Delta.
The former president of the B.C. Teachers Federation was born in the Punjab and emigrated to England when she was 10. Jinny excelled at school, where she learned judo and fencing, and eventually became a teacher.
With her husband, also a teacher, they emigrated to Canada and settled first in Quebec and later on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo, B.C. Her late father instilled in her a sense of community activism, and Jinny became involved with the BCTF. Political parties began to notice and she was asked several times by the NDP to run, but she declined every time until 2011.
The mother of two and grandmother of three, Jinny Sims talks to Catherine Clark about her life Beyond Politics.
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