Senator Andrew Cardozo is a recognized expert on public policy, a columnist, and an artist. His policy areas of expertise span Canadian government and politics, broadcasting and cultural policy, skills development especially the future of work, multiculturalism and diversity.
He was appointed to the Senate on the advice of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2022, before which he was the President and co-founder of the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy. Over the past decade he worked to elevate open public policy dialogue by bringing together thought leaders from all political backgrounds, from business, labour, NGOs and the broader public to address the major challenges facing Canadian society. Prior to that he has been Executive Director of the Alliance of Sector Councils working on skills development across some 30 economic sectors, and Executive Director of the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, where he worked on policies and legislation in employment equity, immigration, multiculturalism and the Canadian constitution.
Senator Cardozo has been a columnist for the Toronto Star and Broadcast Dialogue, and since 2014, a regular contributor to the Hill Times. He was also an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer at the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University.
He has served as a Commissioner of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) where he championed Canadian content, diversity in broadcasting, and played a key role in the licensing of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). Since then, he has volunteered as an adjudicator for the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.
Senator Cardozo was a stay-at-home dad when his children were young. An immigrant from South Asia, with origins in Goa, India and Karachi, Pakistan, he has worked on the successful integration of diversity issues in the mainstream of Canadian public policy. He was a board member of the Catholic Centre for Immigrants (Ottawa), the YMCA-YWCA of the National Capital Region, Media Awareness Network, the Institute of Media Arts, Policy and Civil Society (Vancouver) and has been active with Big Brothers Big Sisters (Ottawa).
He has been the recipient of several awards: the 2023 DreamKeepers Citation for Outstanding Leadership award commemorating the historic role of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal, the Reelworld Film Festival Guardian Angel Award (Toronto), le Prix annuel du Centre de recherche-action sur les relations sociales, CRARR (Montreal), and Big Brother of the Year (Ottawa).
Senator Cardozo holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science from York University and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Carleton University. He has also studied art at the Ottawa School of Art and is an accomplished artist, generally of abstract landscapes and has been featured in several art shows in the Ottawa area, while his art hangs in many countries. He has two adult children who live and work in Ottawa.
