Dianne Louise Haskett (born March 4, 1955) is a Canadian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as the mayor of London, Ontario, Canada, serving from 1994 to 2000, and later ran unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate in the 2006 federal by-election in the riding of London North Centre, placing third. She served two three-year mayoral terms, making a priority of downtown revitalization, heritage preservation, economic development, neighbourhood protection, protecting the environment, international relations, trade corridors' infrastructure, family values and anti-poverty initiatives. She is known for her deep commitment to her Christian faith, which critics have viewed as oppressive toward the LGBT community, and for the Ontario human rights ruling against her. Early years Haskett was born and raised in London's Kensal Park district north of Springbank Drive. Education Haskett earned her B.A. from the University of Waterloo in 1974, her LL.B. from the University of Western Ontario in 1977, her LL.M. from the London School of Economics in 1979 and a second LLM from The George Washington University Law School in 2005. She has also studied law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies at Cambridge University, England. She later founded her own law firm, Haskett Menear & Associates, which grew to include seven lawyers. Mayor From 1991–1994, Haskett was a member of London's elected board of control on City Council. Once Haskett was elected mayor in November 1994, defeating Deputy Mayor Jack Burghardt by slightly more than 1,000 votes, she stepped aside from her duties as a lawyer and as a partner in her law firm. She was re-elected in 1997 with a landslide victory. Proclamation controversy In 1995, Dianne Haskett refused to issue a Gay Pride Proclamation on the basis that she'd previously formulated a policy of declining controversial proclamations. London City Council also declined to issue the Gay Pride Proclamation by a vote of 13-5 (Mayor Haskett abstained from voting). Richard Hudler, president of the Homophile Association of London, Ontario (HALO), filed an official complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission in 1995, a tribunal of which ultimately determined in 1997 after a three-day public hearing that the City of London and Mayor Haskett had discriminated against HALO in the provision of a municipal service. Both the City of London and Haskett were fined $5,000. Haskett placed a paid advertisement in The London Free Press on October 22, 1997,