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Appreciation for Kim Campbell’s legacy grows

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November 11, 2013

Appreciation for Kim Campbell’s legacy grows

By Andrew Cardozo

From The HIll Times

Last week Kim Campbell was feted at the dinner of the Parliamentary Internship Program, marking the 20th anniversary of her prime-ministership A full hall at the Government Conference Centre heard form Campbell and several well wishers.

So what was her legacy? The most obvious was that she was the first, and to date, only woman prime minister of Canada. In some ways things have changed and in other words they have not. With her election as Progressive Conservative leader, we had two major parties headed by women, as Audrey McLaughlin headed the New Democratic Party. We presently have one party headed by a woman – the Green Party with Elizabeth May – the party with just one seat.

Provincially is where there is some real progress.

Premiers Christy Clark of British Columbia, Alison Redford of Alberta, Pauline Marois of Quebec and Kathy Dunderdale of Newfoundland and Labrador have all been elected both by their parties and then in a general election. Premier Kathleen Wynne of Ontario was elected by her party in January of this year and will likely face a general election next spring.

Until a couple of weeks ago we had a sixth female first minister. Premier Eva Aariak of Nunavut announced she would not seek election as Premier after then October 28 election, but then lost her seat in that election.

When Prime Minister Kim Campbell called a meeting with all the first ministers in preparation for a G7 meeting in the summer of 1993, the first of its kind, we were beginning to see female first ministers. Present were Premier Catherine Callbeck of Prince Edward Island, the first woman to be elected as a provincial premier in a general election and Nellie Cournoyea, Premier of the Northwest Territories. (Rita Johnston had been premier of British Columbia in 1991 following the resignation of Bill Vander Zalm but lost in the subsequent general election.)

Since leaving politics in 1993, Campbell has played an active role in Canada and internationally in supporting the need for women to be in politics and to take political leadership. She was a founding member and then, secretary general of the Council of Women World Leaders, of which there have been over 40 in recent decades.

She is also a founding member of the Council of Madrid, made up of world leaders, which promotes democracy across the globe. She makes a point of speaking to young women – and men – about the importance of women in politics. Young folks tend to gravitate to her message.
Some of Kim Campbell’s most notable work was as Minister of Justice in the second Mulroney administration, around issues of human rights, Aboriginal Justice and gender equality. She is credited will putting forward Bill C-43 which was a compromise between the strongly held pro-choice and pro-life views held in the PC caucus. And while her bill on abortion, which had minimal restrictions was defeated in the Senate, she was also the one to announce that the government would not proceed with any further legislation on abortion, which is still the status of that issue.

Despite some strong opposition from members of her own party she brought in tougher gun control following the massacre at L’ecole polytechnique in Montreal, and then took on the issue of sexual assault by reaffirming the rights of the victims. In the end some of the more right wing members supported her leadership vote because they felt she had been fair in their dealings, even if they disagreed with some of her views. Balance in social issues was possible in conservative circles back then!

“Doing politics differently” was one of her slogans when she ran for leadership in 1993, and trendy as it was, her interest in including Canadians in the process of law making was significant. She was big on consultation through her ministerial times and wanted that to be the modus operendi of a Campbell administration. So whether it was consulting with premiers before a G7, or as a minister, with employees of her department or Aboriginal leaders, or immigrant women, she started a project by talking to a lot of concerned folks. That, sadly is part of her legacy that is not a priority with the present government , not by a long shot. But it is a valid and valuable approach and will likely return at some point, whether in the short or longer term

Campbell reorganized government in ways that still endure as she also reduced the size of cabinet from 35 to 23! Well I don’t mean in the number of ministers, now 39, but in the structures of departments. The new Canadian Heritage department made a strong voice for Canadian cultural policy. Human Resources Development Canada was formed bringing together the Employment issues from the old Employment and Immigration and the Welfare aspects from Health and Welfare, thus leaving Health as a ministry unto itself. She did combine parts of immigration enforcement with the Solicitor General function , but after pushback left the two ministries separated, with the new Citizenship and Immigration. Ironically in the post 9/11 period, the enforcement aspects of immigration is with Public Safety and border control.

The results of the 1993 election are interested to recall because although the Progressive Conservatives led by Campbell only got two seats they got 16% of the popular vote compared to 18% for Reform (with 52 seats), and 14% for the Bloc (with 54 seats thus becoming Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition!). The NDP got 7% of the votes and 9 seats and the winning Liberals got 41% with 177 seats. The PC votes were just spread out too thinly.

Campbell came at the end of nine years of PC government , the usual shelf life of any party in government. It was nine years of some big transformational issues, most notabley free trade, Meech Lake and the GST, and many Canadians were tired of big national debates. As Brian Mulroney said in a recent interview with Conrad Black on Zoomer TV, part of Jean Chrétien’s pitch to Canadians was that he was not Brian Mulroney. In essence Campbell carried the torch for that.

As one looks back on her short prime-ministership, there seems to have grown a sense that Canada was still better off for having had Kim Campbell as Prime Minister. The Interns dinner showed a genuine affection and appreciation for her service.

Andrew Cardozo is president of the Canadian Centre for Progressive Policy.

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