Bhutila Karpoche is the Member of Provincial Parliament for Parkdale—High Park. In June 2018, Bhutila made history by becoming the first person of Tibetan heritage to be elected to public office in North America.
Bhutila is active on issues around social justice and public health. She is a longtime advocate of affordable housing, workers’ rights, and public healthcare.
An epidemiologist by training, Bhutila is a public health researcher focusing on the social determinants of health. Most recently, she co-authored the report “A public health crisis in the making: The health impacts of precarious work on racialized refugee and immigrant women."
Bhutila holds degrees from the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto and is a PhD candidate in public health policy at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), where she received the RBC Immigrant, Diversity, and Inclusion Project Award.
Bhutila has presented at many academic conferences and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal. She has been voted Toronto's Best MPP by Now Magazine readers in 2019, 2020, and 2021; Toronto's Best Local Politician by Toronto Star readers in 2019; named one of Toronto's Most Inspirational Women of the year by TRNTO Magazine in 2019; and one of Canada's Top 25 Immigrants by Canadian Immigrant Magazine in 2022.