Elizabeth Rowley (born c. 1949) is the current leader of the Communist Party of Canada. A long-time politician, writer, and political activist, Rowley served as a school trustee in the former Toronto borough of East York. Before becoming leader of the Communist Party of Canada, Rowley was leader of the Communist Party of Ontario. She has been a member of the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Canada since 1978, and has campaigned for office many times at the municipal, federal and provincial levels. Rowley was elected leader of the Communist Party of Canada in January 2016 by the Party's Central Committee, following the retirement of Miguel Figueroa. She is the first female leader of the Communist Party of Canada. Early life and activism Born in British Columbia in 1949, Rowley attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and was active with the Young Communist League of Canada. She joined the Communist Party in 1967. As a young activist, Rowley campaigned against the War Measures Act during the October Crisis in 1970. She was the Party’s youngest candidate in the 1972 federal election, campaigning on issues such as women's reproductive rights, as abortion was then illegal in Canada, as well as calling for an end to the Vietnam War and Canada's participation. After travelling across the country and spending a short time in Quebec, she moved to southern Ontario and worked as a typesetter apprentice and secretary in Windsor, where she became a local party organizer. In 1975, she became Ontario Provincial organizer and moved to Hamilton. There, she became involved in many labour struggles to defend jobs, living standards, labour rights, women’s equality, social programs and Canadian sovereignty. While campaigning to ban the Ku Klux Klan, Rowley’s apartment was destroyed by arson and, the following year, her car was fire bombed. In 1978, Rowley stood for a seat on the Hamilton Board of Control in the last election to that body before it was dissolved prior to the city's 1980 election. Early in the campaign, Rowley was formally asked by the city's Streets and Sanitation Department to remove her election signs from public property, as their placement violated a local bylaw During her campaign, she advocated for lower property taxes for homeowners, the construction of affordable housing, and a 20-cent bus fare. She told the Hamilton Spectator that she was opposed to amalgamation, a proposed expansion to the