Michael Cardo is a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly. He was elected to Parliament in 2014 and served as the Democratic Alliance’s spokesman on the economic development portfolio in the fifth parliament. Re-elected in 2019, Cardo is currently the party’s spokesman on the employment and labour portfolio.

Cardo holds a BA (Hons) in history from the University of Natal as well as an MPhil and PhD in history from the University of Cambridge, where he attended Trinity College.

Before becoming a public representative, Cardo worked as a researcher, speech writer and policy analyst. Between 2011 and 2014, he worked in the Policy and Strategy Unit at the Department of the Premier in the Western Cape Government, specialising in social policy and serving as the Director of Policy Research and Analysis.

Cardo was awarded a visiting research fellowship by the Helen Suzman Foundation in 2006, during which time he wrote a biography of the former South African Liberal Party leader, Peter Brown, entitled Opening Men’s Eyes: Peter Brown and the Liberal Struggle for South Africa (Jonathan Ball: 2010).