Candace Rennick

Regional Vice-President, Ontario
Candace Rennick, a health care worker, is in her third term on the National Executive Board. She was first elected as regional vice-president (RVP) at 23, filling a vacancy for Ontario on the NEB.

She was re-elected in 2003 and again in 2005 at our National Conventions in Quebec City and Winnipeg.

Candace, now 28, has been president of her local, CUPE 2280, for six years. She is the 2nd Vice-President of CUPE Ontario and a vice-president with the Ontario Federation of Labour. Candace is an executive board liaison to Ontario’s young workers committee. She is also National Executive Board liaison to the National Pensions committee.

Candace serves as a member of the National Women’s Task Force, created by delegates to the 2005 National Convention. The Task Force has been consulting broadly with women and men in our union on women’s equality issues and how to improve the participation and representation of women, who make up two-thirds of CUPE’s membership.

Candace first became a CUPE member when she was 16 as a dietary worker at a Peterborough nursing home. An activist since she was 20, Candace supports the need for mechanisms at all levels of leadership – local, provincial, and national – to ensure that CUPE’s leadership reflects the diversity of its broader membership.