Meet the Team

Jim Brownell was elected to the Ontario legislature in 2003 and re-elected in 2007. He has served as Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and the Minister of Tourism.

Before entering politics, Brownell was a teacher with the Upper Canada District School Board for 32 years. Among his many roles in the community, he served for 14 years as councillor, deputy reeve and reeve in the Township of Cornwall and Township of South Stormont. In December 2000, he was appointed to a three-year term as commissioner with the St. Lawrence Parks Commission. Brownell is a past director with Cornwall and Seaway Valley Tourism and the Raisin Region Conservation Authority. He serves on the Library Board for the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. He was appointed to the Township of South Stormont’s Planning Advisory and Waterfront Development Committee in 2000. He has served as president of the Lost Villages Historical Society and Museum since 1992 and has been actively involved with many church committees and with the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

In 2001, Brownell was awarded the Ontario Heritage Foundation’s Heritage Community Recognition Award. In 2002, his community honoured him with the Queen Elizabeth Golden Jubilee Medal.

A graduate of the University of Ottawa, Brownell holds a BA, a BEd and a MEd. In 1992, he completed the Principals’ Qualification Program at Queen’s University. In 2000, and for a number of years following, he was an instructor in the Encore Seniors’ Programs at St. Lawrence College, Cornwall.

Brownell is married to Paulette Charlebois. They have two daughters, Jennifer and Alison. Alison and her husband, Josh Eamon, were blessed with their first child, and Brownell’s first grandchild, Emma, in August 2007.