Rechie Valdez

Early Years and Personal Life

Rechie Valdez's parents — Zosimo Salazar Jr. and Normita B. Salazar — were overseas Filipino workers in Zambia. They worked as an engineer and as a nurse, respectively. Their daughter was born Rechie Aileen Salazar in the mining city of Kitwe. Rechie spent her formative years in the south-central African country with the dream of becoming an artist and a basketball player. In December 1989, she and her family immigrated to Canada. The Salazars lived in Erin Mills, a planned suburban community in Mississauga, Ontario, where she and her brother grew up.

Valdez attended St. Joseph Secondary School and finished her secondary education at Holy Name of Mary College School, in Mississauga, in 1998. She pursued her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Windsor and graduated in 2003.

Since 2007, she has been married to her husband, Christopher Valdez. She is the mother of two children.

Career

Rechie Valdez worked in the financial sector after graduation. From 2003 onward, she spent more than 15 years as a corporate banker with BMO Financial Group.

In 2016, she turned her passion for creating cakes for her family into a profession. She rented a space in a commercial kitchen in Mississauga, where she continued to make custom-made cakes. Soon enough, bridal magazines started featuring her creations. In 2017, she co-founded a Filipino-themed dessert business serving the Greater Toronto Area. However, in 2019, she had to shut down her business. In spring 2021, she became a contestant on The Big Bake’s second season ― a reality-television baking competition.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, she ventured into a number of creative projects. She hosted and produced her own talk show, Fearlessly Creative, on Filipino TV, a Markham, Ontario-based channel. She also mentored others in starting their own business.

Valdez was involved in philanthropic causes as a sports enthusiast. Notably, she managed basketball tournaments to raise funds for children's charities across Canada.

Federal Politics

Rechie Valdez’s first foray into politics came in the 2021 federal election. She agreed to run for public office to continue her passion for community building, but on a larger scale. The incumbent MP for Mississauga-Streetsville, Gagan Sikand, had announced that he would not be seeking re-election. The Liberal Party nominated Valdez for the riding; party leaders viewed her as the candidate to represent “small businesses, her community, and women” in a tough local race.

She campaigned on the platform of fighting climate change while promoting entrepreneurship and addressing the gender pay gap. (See also Gender Equality.) Health care investments and supporting first-time home buyers and small business owners were also important topics for her.

On 20 September 2021, Valdez won in Mississauga-Streetsville with 47.3 per cent of the votes ― more than 13 percentage points more than the Conservative candidate. She became one of 49 members of Parliament to be elected for the first time in the 2021 federal election. In October, she took her oath of office, making headlines as the first Filipina to be elected to the House of Commons.

Rechie Valdez expressed great pride in her Filipino heritage. In her maiden speech on 26 April 2022, she noted how many Filipino immigrants, like her mother, came to Canada “to build a better life for families.” As an MP, she advocated for foreign-trained workers and for offering them pathways to permanent residency, particularly for caregivers. (See also Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Programs.) In 2022, she called for investments for women entrepreneurs by sponsoring a bill to establish a national women’s entrepreneurship day. (See also Notable Women Entrepreneurs in Canadian History.)

Since her election, she has participated in different standing committees in the House of Commons, including on Veterans Affairs as well as on Agriculture and Agri-Food. She also held roles in parliamentary associations such as the Canadian NATO and Canada-Africa parliamentary associations. In November 2022, she was named as the new chair of the Canada-Philippines Interparliamentary Group.

Minister of Small Business

In 2023, Rechie Valdez was promoted to a Cabinet role. In a Cabinet shuffle, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced her as the new minister of small business. Since 2019, the small business file had been part of the international trade and export promotion portfolio; however, it was decided to have a minister dedicated to this portfolio.

Minister Valdez's appointment by the Governor General made her one of the few rookie members of Trudeau’s gender-balanced cabinet. On 26 July 2023, she was sworn in as minister of small business at Rideau Hall.

She became the second Filipino Canadian to oversee a ministerial position in the Government of Canada. The first was former Liberal MP Rey Pagtakhan in the cabinet of Jean Chrétien. Rechie Valdez was also hailed as the first Filipina to be a federal Cabinet minister.

Awards and Honours

Rechie Valdez was a recipient of the 2021 Quincentennial Award given by the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto.

In 2022, the US-based Foundation for Filipina Women’s Network recognized her as part of their 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World Award. Valdez was one of four award recipients from Canada.