Maria Van Bommel was elected to the Ontario legislature in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. She has served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Previously, she served two terms as a municipal councillor for East Williams Township, beginning in 1995. In 1996, she became a trustee on the board of governors for Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital. In 2001, she was chair of the board and of the joint executive for the Middlesex Hospital Alliance.
Her career has also included farming, accounting and small business. She served as the Ontario Federation of Agriculture member services representative for Lambton and Middlesex counties. Van Bommel was a founding member of Middlesex’s Women for the Support of Agriculture, the Ontario Farm Women’s Network and the Canadian Farm Women’s Network. As a member of the liaison committee of Ontario Farm Organizations, she was an outspoken defender of the family farm during the 1980s. She has served as a director of the Middlesex Federation of Agriculture and as provincial director of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. Van Bommel attended Centralia College of Agricultural Technology.
She and her husband, Rene, operate a poultry farm near Strathroy. They have five children and 12 grandchildren.
