Karen Vecchio


Karen Louise Vecchio is a Canadian politician who served as the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Elgin—Middlesex—London from 2015 to 2025.

Biography

She was raised in Sparta, Ontario. Prior to her election, Vecchio owned and operated the Coffee Grind coffee shop in London, Ontario, which she eventually sold. She then joined the New Sarum Diner in Central Elgin in a management role.
In 2004, Vecchio started working for then-Member of Parliament for Elgin—Middlesex—London, Joe Preston, eventually becoming his Executive Assistant before being elected herself.

Political career

Vecchio was first elected an MP in the 2015 Canadian federal election.
In late September 2017, after Rachael Thomas was nominated by fellow Conservative MPs to be the Chair of the House Status of Women Committee, which by convention is chaired by an MP from an opposition party, Liberal and NDP members of the committee walked out of the meeting to deny quorum during which the vote to fill the Chair position would have been held, in protest of Harder's anti-abortion voting record and her previous endorsement by the Campaign Life Coalition. The following week, on October 3, the Liberals used their majority on the committee, and also with the support of the committee's only NDP MP, Sheila Malcolmson, to instead nominate and confirm Vecchio as Chair over her objections. Afterwards, Vecchio, the Conservative critic for families, children and social development, and Harder issued a joint statement accusing the Liberals of politicizing the Chair selection process and of bullying Harder as a distraction from their recent tax changes.
On July 30, 2024, Vecchio announced that she will not seek re-election in the 2025 federal election. Vecchio told the London Free Press that being apart from her family half the year and her dismissal as chair of the status of women committee were a couple of decisions why she did not seek re-election. Vecchio also told that she would not endorse any candidate in the race including the Conservative candidate, Andrew Lawton, a former broadcaster and biographer to Pierre Poilievre, by standing that she is a "grassroots conservative" who believes in local leadership while stating that Lawton had few roots to the riding. She also noted that she was on the party's centrist wing while Lawton was on its right wing.