Karen Haslam (born April 19, 1946) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995 and served as a minister in the government of Bob Rae. From 2000 to 2003, she served as mayor of Stratford, Ontario. Background Haslam was a teacher and librarian before entering public life. She was elected as a Rate Payer's trustee in Beaverbank, Nova Scotia in 1984, and as a school board trustee in Stratford in 1987. Provincial politics She ran for the Ontario legislature in the 1990 provincial election in the southwestern riding of Perth. She won the election defeating Liberal Gerry Teahen by 2,985 votes. The NDP won a majority government and Haslam was appointed as a Deputy Speaker. On July 31, 1991, she was promoted to cabinet as Minister of Culture and Communications. In October 1991, a humorous incident occurred when Haslam was escorting Prince Charles on a tour of the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) when she caught her heel in a door sill and her shoe fell off. Charles gallantly picked it up and offered it back to her. She said, "My gracious, my prince is handing me my shoe... Thank goodness it fits." During her time as minister she established a publishing centre for the book and magazine industry. She also managed a funding shortage that occurred at the AGO. In 1991 the AGO asked for an additional $6 million for its operating grant. Due to financial constraints, Haslam was unable to agree the request. In July 1992 the AGO was planning a three-month closure for a scheduled expansion but instead it closed for seven months and laid off half of its staff. Haslam convened a task force to review the operation of the AGO led by Glenn Lowry. In November the task force released its findings. If found the operations "basically sound" but the gallery needed to "reduce its dependency on government funding." When the expanded gallery reopened in January 1993, Haslam announced an additional $2 million in funding. On February 3, 1993 she was demoted to junior position in cabinet as Associate Minister of Health assisting Minister of Health Ruth Grier. She subsequently emerged as a prominent opponent of the Rae government's Social Contract austerity legislation, which revised labour contracts and mandated unpaid leave days for many provincial workers. After the government