Shirley Coppen

Shirley Coppen
Ontario MPP
In office 1990–1995
Preceded by	Ray Haggerty
Succeeded by	Tim Hudak
Constituency	Niagara South
Personal details
Born	1946 (age 70–71) Port Colborne, Ontario
Political party	New Democrat
Children	2
Residence	Toronto
Occupation	Nursing assistant

Shirley Coppen (born c. 1946) is former politician in Ontario, Canada. She served as a New Democratic Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995 who represented the riding of Niagara South. She served as a cabinet minister in the government of Bob Rae.

Coppen was educated at Niagara College, in the Labour Studies program. She was a registered nursing assistant at Welland County General Hospital for eighteen years, and served as president of the Welland and District Labour Council from 1986 to 1990. She also served as an executive on the Ontario Federation of Labour.

She was elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1990 provincial election, defeating Liberal candidate John Lopinski by almost 4,000 votes in the riding of Niagara South. The NDP won a majority government and Coppen was named as a minister without portfolio and Chief Government Whip on October 1, 1990. Her responsibilities as whip included ensuring that members were present for votes in both the legislature and in committee. During her first term in office, she never lost a vote. She also acted as Deputy House Leader.

In April 1992, Coppen was portrayed in the media as using her position as whip to reward hard working members with routine trips to study the parliamentary process. She said, "I take a look at who's gone that little extra mile and it's my one way of rewarding them." One odd request was that she asked members to bring her back a souvenir bell for her collection. At least two MPPs brought back bells for which she reimbursed them. Coppen became known as the "Bell Woman" of the legislature. Liberal member Greg Sorbara complained that Coppen was doling out junkets as favours. Premier Bob Rae said that this was nonsense. "That's a joke," he said. "I can't imagine anyone taking that as a serious kind of comment."

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