Klazina Judith Wasylycia-Leis (; born 1951) is a Canadian politician. She was a Manitoba cabinet minister in the government of Howard Pawley from 1986 to 1988, and was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from September 22, 1997, to April 30, 2010. In 2010 and 2014 she was an unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of Winnipeg. Early life She was born Klazina Judith Wasylycia, the daughter of Harry Wasylycia and Klazina Nielson, in Winterbourne, Ontario, a small town near Kitchener, on August 10, 1951. She graduated from Elmira District Secondary School in 1970. Wasylycia-Leis was educated at the University of Waterloo, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in political science and French in 1974, and Carleton University, where she received a Master of Arts in political science in 1976. She worked as a policy planning consultant for the New Democratic Party following her graduation, and served as an executive assistant to party leader Ed Broadbent. She also served as women's organizer for the federal NDP during this period. In 1972, she married Ronald Wayne Leis. Wasylycia-Leis ran for office three times while living in Ontario, though she was not elected on any of these occasions. In 1977, she ran for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the provincial NDP in the riding of Carleton, and received 6,837 votes for a third-place finish. She ran for the seat again in a 1980 by-election and the 1981 general election, and again placed third on each occasion. Manitoba legislature Wasylycia-Leis moved to Manitoba during the 1980s, where she worked as an executive assistant to Premier Howard Pawley and coordinated the Women's Directorate in the Manitoba government. In the mid 1980s, she decided to challenge longtime incumbent NDP MLA Donald Malinowski for the nomination in the North End Winnipeg riding of St. Johns, which was generally considered a safe seat for the party. "Everyone said it was impossible to beat Father Malinowski," she said. Wasylycia-Leis' campaign for the nomination gained so much momentum that it led Malinowski to drop out of the race. In the end, she won the 1986 provincial election, defeating Progressive Conservative John Baluta by almost two thousand votes. On April 17, 1986, Wasylycia-Leis was appointed to the Manitoba cabinet as Minister of Culture, Heritage and Recreation with responsibility for Status of Women and the administration of the Manitoba Lotteries Foundation Act. She was relieved of the Status