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Costas Menegakis
Costas Menegakis
	Menegakis in 2019
Member of Parliament; for Richmond Hill
	In office; May 30, 2011 – August 4, 2015
Preceded by	Bryon Wilfert
Succeeded by	Majid Jowhari
Personal details
Born	January 12, 1959 (age 65); Montreal, Quebec
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Gail
Residence	Richmond Hill, Ontario
Profession	Politician

Costas Menegakis (born in Montreal, Quebec) is a businessman, an entrepreneur and a former Canadian politician, who represented the federal electoral district of Richmond Hill from 2011 to 2015.^[2]

Personal life

Menegakis is of Greek descent born to parents who immigrated to Canada in the 1950s. He was educated in Montreal, Quebec and is a graduate of Concordia University's Faculty of Commerce. He moved to Markham, Ontario in 1985 and currently resides in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Menegakis founded Tilwood Inc., a product fulfillment & logistics company in Richmond Hill in 1988. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Tilwood Inc. currently operating in Brampton, Ontario.

Menegakis has served in a volunteer capacity for the following non-profit organizations over the past 30 years that offer services to families and particularly to youth, seniors and persons with special needs. He has served on the Board of Directors of Accessible Media Inc., the Metropolitan Toronto Police Chief's Community Advisory Council, the Empire Club of Canada, the Greek Community of Toronto,^[3] the Hellenic Home for the Aged and the World Council for Hellenes Abroad. Menegakis is a member of the Richmond Hill Board of Trade, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 375, the Rotary Club of York and the Oak Ridges Lions Club.

Menegakis was awarded Her Majesty's Queen Elizabeth II Gold and Diamond Jubilee Medals and is a recipient of Rotary International's Paul Harris Fellow recognition.

Menegakis speaks three languages: English, French and Greek.^[4]^[5]

Federal politics

Member of Parliament

In 2011 Costas Menegakis was elected to Canada's 41st Parliament as the Member of Parliament for Richmond Hill and in 2013, Menegakis was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.^[6] During his time in office, Menegakis was a member on the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committees for Citizenship and Immigration, Procedures and House Affairs, Government Operations and Estimates and Official Languages.^[7]

2015 federal election

In the 2015 federal election, Menegakis contested in the new Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill riding.^[8] Menegakis was defeated by Liberal candidate Leona Alleslev by just 1,093 votes.^[9]

2019 federal election

In February 2018, Menegakis was again elected as the Conservative candidate for Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, but later stepped down as the party's nominee when Alleslev crossed the floor to join the Conservative Party. Two weeks later, Menegakis was acclaimed as the Conservative candidate in his former riding of Richmond Hill.^[10]

2021 federal election

Menagakis was nominated as the Conservative Candidate in Richmond Hill and was defeated in a rematch of the 2019 federal election by the incumbent MP, Majid Jowhari 47.7% to 38.8%.

45th federal election

In February 2024, Menegakis announced that he was seeking the Conservative Party nomination, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill for the upcoming federal election. He required a waiver from the party due to nomination rules which forbid candidates with two election losses from running again.

Initially, he was expected to compete against former National Post columnist Sabrina Maddeaux, Aurora town councillor Rachel Gilliland, former Richmond Hill city councillor Carmine Perrelli, and small business owner Yun Liu.^[11] However, on May 9, Maddeaux announced that she was suspending her campaign due to concerns that the party was not taking her allegations of an anonymous email smear campaign against her seriously.^[12]^[11] The Conservative Party stated that Maddeaux was the only candidate who had access to the Conservative membership list at the time of the alleged smear campaign.^[13] Gilliland, whose nomination application was rejected by the party, raised concerns about the nomination process by stating that she had less support among the existing Conservative membership.^[14]^[11]

Menegakis later defeated Perrelli to become the Conservative nominee.^[15]

Electoral record

v t e 2021 Canadian federal election: Richmond Hill
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Majid Jowhari	21,784	47.71	+4.23	$100,540.48
	Conservative	Costas Menegakis	17,715	38.80	-4.26	$94,783.92
	New Democratic	Adam DeVita	3,995	8.75	-0.05	$3,001.25
	People's	Igor Tvorogov	1,363	2.98	+1.98	$1,539.41
	Independent	Charity DiPaola	619	1.36	–	$31,134.43
	Independent	Angelika Keller	186	0.41	–	$0.00
Total valid votes/Expense limit			45,662	–	–	$112,849.20
Total rejected ballots			543
Turnout			46,205	55.57	-4.33
Eligible voters			83,148
	Liberal hold		Swing		+4.25
Source: Elections Canada^[16]^[17]

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election: Richmond Hill
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Majid Jowhari	21,804	43.48	-3.42	$83,458.04
	Conservative	Costas Menegakis	21,592	43.06	-0.26	$108,773.79
	New Democratic	Adam DeVita	4,425	8.80	+0.76	$4,207.04
	Green	Ichha Kohli	1,695	3.40	+1.66	$0.00
	People's	Igor Tvorogov	507	1.0		none listed
	Rhinoceros	Otto Wevers	126	0.2		none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			50,149	100.0
Total rejected ballots			584
Turnout			50,733	59.9
Eligible voters			84,660
	Liberal hold		Swing		-1.58
Source: Elections Canada^[18]^[19]

v t e 2015 Canadian federal election: Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Leona Alleslev	24,132	47.34	+19.47	$76,512.44
	Conservative	Costas Menegakis	23,039	45.19	−6.31	$150,877.75
	New Democratic	Brenda Power	2,912	5.71	−10.24	$1,887.13
	Green	Randi Ramdeen	654	1.28	−2.19	–
	Animal Alliance	Kyle Bowles	243	0.48	–	$5,898.62
Total valid votes/expense limit			50,980	100.00		$212,912.36
Total rejected ballots			204	0.40	–
Turnout			51,184	64.91	–
Eligible voters			78,848
	Liberal notional gain from Conservative		Swing		+12.89
Source: Elections Canada^[20]^[21]^[22]

2011 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Costas Menegakis	22,078	44.14	+8.45
	Liberal	Bryon Wilfert	17,671	35.33	-11.66
	New Democratic	Adam DeVita	8,433	16.86	+6.97
	Green	Cameron Hastings	1,832	3.66	-3.75
Total valid votes/Expense limit			50,014	100.00
Total rejected ballots			221	0.44	-0.05
Turnout			50,235	55.96	+3.91
Eligible voters			89,765	–	–