PROFILE: NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

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The political Christmas card is an annual tradition at Queen's Park. And the image on the chosen for each card is usually crafted to try to send a message about the politician as a person. Often, it's that they're part of a family.

For two Christmases running — unlike the other leaders' cards showing them with their wives and children and sometimes pets — NDP leader Andrea Horwath was the only person pictured on the card.

Writing in the Toronto Star, columnist Jim Coyle described Horwath's 2009 card as "just a megawatt smile amid the studio snowflakes" and the 2010 version as "a fetching photo that's definitely not your grandfather's idea of an NDP Leader."

Asked at the time why Horwath didn't include her common-law partner of 25 years, Ben Leonetti, or their teenage son Julian on her card, a staff member said Horwath is intensely private about her personal life. Another possible explanation emerged in March this year, when Horwath revealed she and Leonetti had split in late 2009, only months after Horwath had become party leader.

"When I get up in the Legislature and I talk about the single mom or a woman struggling at two or three jobs or family responsibilities, it is something that hits close to home," Horwath told The Star's Tanya Talaga.

Horwath had long been something of a SuperMom, mixing paid jobs with volunteer activism, and being her son's primary caregiver. She first got into politics in 1997, running federally for the NDP and coming in second, but then winning a seat on Hamilton City Council that same year. She served on council seven years.

'Million-dollar woman'

Horwath came to Queen's Park by winning the byelection in Hamilton East in May 2004. That took away a riding that had been Liberal, brought the NDP up to eight seats and gave it back its official party status. That meant more than $1 million in funding to the NDP caucus, prompting then-leader Howard Hampton to dub Horwath the "million-dollar woman."

After another distant third-place finish for the New Democrats in the 2007 election, Hampton stepped down as leader. Horwath was the last of the four MPPs to join the race to replace him, and in March 2009 she became the first woman to lead the Ontario NDP.

Horwath was born in Stoney Creek in 1962. The union movement was part of her life from the beginning. Her father was an auto worker at the Ford plant in Oakville, and she went to union picnics as a child.

After graduating from Cardinal Newman Catholic High School in Stoney Creek, she chose Labour Studies as her major, getting a B.A. at McMaster. She worked her way through university partly as a waitress, partly at an industrial dry-cleaners.

Her work before politics always had an activist bent: teaching ESL to laid-off workers, running housing co-ops, community development, anti-racism training. After Mike Harris came to power, Horwath led a 1996 "Days of Action" protest in Hamilton that drew 50,000 demonstrators.

'I know you don't give it all up at once'

Horwath now represents the riding of Hamilton Centre, and lives in a townhouse in the Steel City. Her staff say she has a close relationship with her son, and that even though he's a teenager, he truly enjoys spending time with her.

The 48-year-old Horwath likes to swim and work out in a gym. She's a Hamilton Tiger-Cats fan, and is known in NDP circles as a wicked cheesecake maker. Her staff say she's a hard worker, driven to accomplish things, and a strong woman.

She's been described in the media as warm, compassionate and approachable. Even right-of-centre Ottawa Citizen columnist Randall Denley (now a PC candidate) begrudgingly described Horwath as "personally appealing." The New Democrats hope that appeal — and a more populist campaign platform — will push the party to its best electoral showing since 1990.

Horwath launched the first part of that platform in June. In the news conference afterward, a reporter asked why she wasn't releasing more. Horwath promised a few more surprises come fall, then surprised everyone by quipping: "Look, I'm a woman. I know you don't give it all up at once."

Horwath's staff say it was an absolutely unscripted moment, one that prompted a burst of laughter from the whole Queen's Park press gallery. It's a leading candidate for the most memorable sound bite of the 2011 election campaign.

NDP party platform: