long history of being represented by prominent PC ministers. Willowdale was where the PC came the closest to retaining a seat within the City of Toronto in 2003. Zimmer fended off a challenge by high profile local councillor David Shiner in 2007, and was re-elected again 2011, and 2014, increasing his share of vote and margin of victory each time. Between 2003 and 2011, Zimmer served as Parliamentary Assistant to Attorneys General Michael Bryant and Chris Bentley. Between 2011 and 2013, Zimmer served as Parliamentary Assistant to Kathleen Wynne, then Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. He was a member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (2003–06, 2007–11, 2012), Standing Committee on Estimates (2006–07), Standing Committee on Justice Policy (2006–11), Standing Committee on General Government (2012), Select Committee on Elections (2008–09), and Select Committee on the proposed transaction of the TMX Group and the London Stock Exchange Group (2011). In 2004, his motion to create an "Elder Abuse Awareness Day" was passed with support from all parties. He also assisted former Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant with legislation to ban pit bulls in Ontario. In 2006, he sponsored a Private Member’s Bill which will suspend the driver’s license of anyone who is convicted of impaired boating. It passed with unanimous consent of all parties in the Ontario Legislature. Zimmer was awarded the Greatest Local Hero Award by the North York Town Crier for his volunteer and community work in Willowdale. In 2005, he received a "Social Work Doctors’ Colloquium" Award of Merit for his work toward a just and caring society. He has also been cited for work on Ontario Municipal Board reform and the new City of Toronto Act, which gives Toronto greater power to manage its own affairs. During Ontario Liberal Party's 2012-13 leadership election, Zimmer along with Linda Jeffrey, Reza Moridi and Mario Sergio, were the first four caucus supporters of Kathleen Wynne's candidacy, declaring their support at Wynne's campaign launch on November 5, 2012. Minister of Aboriginal Affairs In February 2013, Zimmer, who was Premier Kathleen Wynne's parliamentary assistant in the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and one of her earliest caucus supporters, was appointed by Wynne to her cabinet to succeed herself as the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. Under Zimmer's watch, the aboriginal affairs ministry was able to secure significant, in some case unprecedented, progress on many files, in large