Nelly Shin

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Nelly Shin MP (born 1972^[3]) is a Canadian politician who was elected as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada for Port Moody—Coquitlam as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.^[4][5]

Shin is the first Korean-Canadian to be elected to the House of Commons.^[6] She is the second Korean-Canadian woman, after Yonah Martin, to serve in the Parliament of Canada.

Background[]

Shin was born in South Korea in 1972, and is the eldest of three siblings. She immigrated with her parents to Canada in 1977, settling in East York, Ontario. Her parents ran a floral business. She earned two degrees from the University of Toronto: a Bachelor of Music in 1996 and a Bachelor of Education in 2000. She left teaching in 2008 to pursue a career in music and ministry. In December 2017, she launched a campaign to attain the Conservative nomination in the Ontario riding of Richmond Hill, but later withdrew to allow a former Conservative MP to gain the nomination. After having earlier lived in British Columbia for three years, she moved permanently to the province in 2018 and secured the party’s nomination in Port Moody—Coquitlam in June 2019.

Teaching career[]

After earning a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Toronto in 2000, Shin worked for the Toronto District School Board as a high-school English and Music teacher. Her initial posts were in inner-city high schools, at which two stabbings took place – events that she says “profoundly impacted” her by deepening her “awareness of the societal challenges around her.”^[7] She also taught piano, theory and composition and directed choirs, bands and musical theatre productions. She left teaching in 2008.

Music career[]

Shin started studying piano when she was eight and penned her first composition, Yearning, when she was 15.^[8] She continued to compose while studying music at the University of Toronto, with some of her original compositions being performed by pianist Stephen Clarke and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. She has sung with the University of Toronto’s Symphony Chorus and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In 1998, she was appointed Composer-in Residence with the Agincourt Collegiate Institute Symphony Orchestra. After graduating with her music degree in 1996, she also sang Gospel music, and appeared on CTV, Vision, and Omni Television. In 2005, Ms. Shin released a full-length debut album, featuring the single "Marrow of My Heart." She became a freelance musician after leaving teaching and moving to Nashville, Tennessee. In 2009, she assumed the professional artist name “Eden’s Rose,” releasing an instrumental piano album, Paradise Memoirs, at the same time. After moving to Victoria, British Columbia, in 2012, she recorded In Search of Eden (2013) and Postcards from Banff (2014). Also in 2014, she released a single, “Rhythm of Your Dreams,” which reached No. 4 on Adult Contemporary radio station rotation lists recommended by AC Music Research Letter. The song peaked at No. 2 on Top40-Charts.com’s top 10 World Singles Chart. She moved back to Toronto in 2015. In 2016, she recorded another album, Summer Sketches—a solo piano album. SoloPiano.com nominated it for Best Classical Album among international contestants.

Ministry[]

Ms. Shin converted to Christianity in 1996, which led to her performing charitable service with families and marginalized communities for 20 years. Her work has been described as being a missionary/counsellor, helping people cope with issues such as marriage crisis, family crisis, addiction, and childhood abuse. She travelled extensively throughout North America performing this work, including to Los Angeles, where she lived in a community that was entrenched in addictions.

Politics[]

In December 2017, Shin launched a campaign to win the Conservative Party of Canada nomination in the Ontario riding of Richmond Hill. However, she withdrew from the race following then-Liberal MP Leona Alleslev's (Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill) September 2018, decision to cross the floor and join the Conservatives. Former Conservative MP Costas Menegakis had been seeking the CPC nomination to run against Alleslev in Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill (which is adjacent to Richmond Hill), but after Alleslev's floor crossing, he set his sights on the Richmond Hill nomination. In turn, Shin stepped aside to allow Menegakis to run for the nomination unopposed and later decided to return to BC and seek the Conservative nomination in the riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam.

Her campaign became public in February 2019 as she won endorsements from the likes of retired Senator Gerry St. Germain, retired Coquitlam City Councillor Terry O'Neill and the previous Conservative candidate for the riding, Tim Laidler. The only other person seeking the nomination, Matthew Sebastiani, said the following month that he had been pressured by at least one Conservative to drop out of the race. Shin held her official nomination-launch reception on May 14, at which time she disclosed that a major reason she had chosen to run in the riding was that Port Moody has proclaimed itself to the “City of the Arts,” and that, as a professionally trained pianist and composer, she had a deep love of the art. In June, the party disqualified Sebastiani; it did not release any reasons. Shin was officially declared the CPC candidate for the riding on June 20, 2019.

On September 20, 2021 she lost re-election, against Bonita Zarrillo of the NDP, whom she had defeated narrowly in the 2019 election.

Electoral record[]

References[]

External links[]

• Nelly Shin on Facebook