Marci Ien has led a career of leaps. The biggest, perhaps, was her decision to leave her incredibly successful 30-year career as a broadcast journalist to run for office—and winning. After two elections and five years of fighting for the women and queer people of Canada, Ien was set to run for reelection this time last year. She had a campaign manager. She had an office space. And she had a strong feeling she was going to win. But one morning, something within her spoke to her. “Something just said, not this time,” Ien tells us.

Before her stint in politics, Ien was a familiar face on Canadian television for years—first as a reporter for CTV News and then on Canada AM, where she made history as the first Black woman in our country to co-host a morning show. In 2017, she became co-host of the daytime talk show The Social. Three years later, the Prime Minister called. She still remembers what Trudeau said when he asked her to run: “You talk about what your vision is for this country on the talk show every day, but I’m giving you the opportunity to shape policy.”

“The biggest leap, I think, was The Social to politics,” Ien says. “There was just a lot of unknowns there. I leapt and didn’t know a ton. I didn’t know if I’d win. I didn’t occupy that space at all.” Ien had interviewed politicians, but had no direct experience in politics. She tells us that her decision to run, and the fact that she won, was a lesson in doing what you think is impossible. 

“My parents really couldn’t have dreamt this one,” Ien says. “Their kid, born in St. James Town and raised in Scarborough, to be a journalist in this country that did quite well and then to be at the Cabinet table…I really don’t think that that was any part of the dream.”

Ien served as the Liberal MP for Toronto Centre for five years. Her connection to the riding runs deep. “I loved the people that I served in Toronto Centre. That’s where I was born, and those communities mean a heck of a lot to me,” she says. Ien also attended university in the riding, graduating from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Radio and Television Arts program in 1991.

As a Cabinet member, Ien’s impact reached far beyond Toronto Centre. In 2021, she was appointed to Trudeau’s Cabinet as the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth (WAGE). In her time as Minister, she launched Canada’s first 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, which set aside $75 million for grassroots queer and trans organizations, an additional $25 million for research, and outlined security plans for Pride parades in cities and towns across Canada. Even years later, she’s still seeing the impact of her work.

“I was talking to a friend the other day, a trans woman, and what she was saying to me almost made me cry,” Ien says. “After the BC shooting, there was almost like a war room that they put together, just trans organizations, because they knew people would be pointing to the trans community. They looked around as they were sitting there, and she said, the one thing that we had in common was you. Your funding gave the money needed for those organizations to do their work.”

During her five years in office, Ien also launched Canada’s first National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Putting this plan into effect, Ien tells us, was no easy task. In the span of just a few months, she worked tirelessly to secure signatures from her counterparts in every province and territory, including those from opposing parties. Once the signatures were in place, the 10-year plan was put into action, allowing each province and territory to decide how to spend their allotted funds to best support the women who lived there—whether it was addressing generational violence, human trafficking, or supporting women in business. 

Around the time that Ien stepped away from politics last year, the conversation around tariffs was heating up, and tensions between the United States and Canada were flaring. While she agrees the economy is vitally important, Ien urges people to see economic issues as women’s issues—from the gender pay gap to women who run small businesses impacted by tariffs. “Economic stories are women’s stories, and I fear that people don’t see that,” Ien says. “Women are seen as kind of an exclusive thing that has nothing to do with the way the country runs.”

Mark Carney was appointed Prime Minister in March 2025, a week after Ien had announced her resignation. On the day he was sworn in, he removed WAGE, Ien’s former position, from his Cabinet. Ien was shocked by the news, as were many who were concerned this signalled a shift in priorities for the new government. Following significant pushback from hundreds of feminist organizations across Canada, Carney reinstated the position after the Liberals won the federal election in April. “I’m very, very happy that it was reinstated,” Ien says. “Had it not been, that would have been a huge thing.”

Trudeau created WAGE as an official Cabinet position in 2017. “To make a move and say women have to be represented better, and we’re going to make it a full ministry—that was a serious power move,” Ien says. Initially, WAGE was a secretary of state position, which Ien explains was often viewed as a junior role in Cabinet. The Honourable Jean Augustine assumed that position in 2002, making history as the first Black woman Cabinet minister. It took 19 years, until Ien’s appointment in 2021, for there to be a second.

“We need more representation, and we need more intersectionality in our representation,” Ien says. “Women are underrepresented in the halls of power in our country. That’s problematic, because when you add women, things change—and often for the better.”

In her year since stepping away from politics, Ien tells us that she still finds herself immersed in the community—whether it’s as an ambassador for TMU, mentoring students, or in her work as a speaker. And of course, she’s still spending time in Toronto Centre. “I was at Jarvis a month ago. I’m at Harbord next week. I’m still very much a part of the community,” she says.

Next month, she’ll be presented with the Vice-Chancellor’s Honour at the University of West Indies Toronto Benefit Awards, an honour she says means everything to her.

“I lost both of my parents last year. Both were Trinidadian and came to this country in the 60s to go to school and build a life for my sister and me,” Ien says. “For this award to come from this community in particular is very, very special. It not just honours me, but honours my family, honours my parents, honours who we are.”  

Family also played a role in her decision to step down. Ien tells us that her time away has given her a chance to rest, travel, and spend time with her kids until she figures out what her next chapter holds. One thing is for sure—whatever is next will involve being of service to others. “I have a heart for service. I know that,” Ien says, “So whatever I do, there’s going to be an element of it.”

We had to ask: would that ever mean a return to politics? “I never say never, because I never saw myself there,” Ien says. “Who am I to say never to anything at this point?”