Flora MacDonald (politician)
| The Honourable Flora Isabel MacDonald P.C., C.C., O.Ont.. O.N.S. |
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| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Kingston and the Islands |
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| In office 1972–1988 |
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| Preceded by | Edgar Benson |
| Succeeded by | Peter Milliken |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 3, 1926 North Sydney, Nova Scotia |
| Political party | Progressive Conservative |
| Profession | politician |
Flora Isabel MacDonald, PC, CC, OOnt, ONS (born June 3, 1926) is a Canadian politician.
Born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, she worked in administration for the Progressive Conservative Party for several years, prior to becoming involved in electoral politics.
She was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1972 general election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Kingston and the Islands. She remained in parliament until her defeat in the 1988 election.
At the 1976 PC leadership convention, she became the first woman to mount a serious campaign for the leadership of one of Canada's two major governing parties. In this, she had been preceded by Rosemary Brown who ran in 1975 for the leadership of the New Democratic Party, and by Mary Walker-Sawka, who won two votes at the PC leadership convention in 1967.
MacDonald fared worse than expected, winning just 214 votes on the first ballot despite having over 300 pledged delegates in her camp. This led pundits to coin the phrase the Flora Syndrome[1] for the phenomenon of a female politician's promised support failing to materialise. It was thought that this was a result of sexism: delegates liked the candidate but in the end could not bring themselves to vote for her because she was a woman. MacDonald dropped off after the second ballot, and encouraged her supporters to vote for Joe Clark, the eventual winner.
Clark and MacDonald, both Red Tories, became allies throughout their careers. When Clark became Prime Minister of Canada in 1979, he made MacDonald the first female Secretary of State for External Affairs in Canadian history, and one of the first female foreign ministers anywhere in the world. MacDonald, in turn, supported Clark at the 1983 leadership convention, where he lost to Brian Mulroney.
MacDonald returned to government after the PC victory in the 1984 federal election, serving first as Minister of Employment and Immigration, and then as Minister of Communications under Prime Minister Mulroney.
Since losing her seat in 1988, MacDonald has devoted her time to international humanitarian work. She served as president of the World Federalist Movement - Canada.[2] In 2003, she briefly re-entered the political scene to oppose the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and the Canadian Alliance, but was unable to prevent the folding of the PCs into the new Conservative Party of Canada. According to journalist Thomas Walkom she voted for the New Democratic Party in the 2004 federal election.[3]
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[edit] Honours
- Kingston's prominent 400-boat harbour in front of City Hall is named the Flora MacDonald Confederation Basin in her honour.
- Appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in 1992.[4]
- Promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada in 1998.
- Recipient of the Pearson Medal of Peace in 1999.
- Awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws for her role as parliamentarian and humanitarian by Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2003.[5]
- Awarded the Padma Shri, a civilian award, by the Government of India in 2004.
- Peter Raymont made a National Film Board documentary of her 1976 leadership bid, entitled Flora.[6]
- Made a Member of the Order of Nova Scotia in 2007.[7]
- St. Andrew's Society of Toronto Scot of the Year Award, 2009.
- Recipient of the Canada World Peace Award, awarded by the World Federalist Movement - Canada, October 2010. [2]
- Received the Order of Ontario in 1995.
- Advisory Council member of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.[8]
[edit] See also
- Bradley effect, Shy Tory Factor, and spiral of silence, for similar phenomena to the "Flora Syndrome"
[edit] References
- ^ "Where have all the women leaders gone?". University of Alberta ExpressNews. 2002-12-20. http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=3542.
- ^ World Federalist Movement - Canada, World-View page accessed June 7, 2006 Archived August 23, 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Walkom, Thomas (2005-11-12). "Still feeling jilted after right-wing marriage:Many unhappy with PC-Alliance union". Toronto Star. http://www.davidorchard.com/online/media-2005/torontostar-20051112.html.
- ^ "Order of Canada citation". http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=3981.
- ^ Memorial University names honorary degree recipients for 2003 spring convocation, April 9, 2003
- ^ "Peter Raymont". http://www.whitepinepictures.com/seeds/bio-peter.html.
- ^ "Recipients—2007". http://www.gov.ns.ca/prot/2007recipients.htm.
- ^ [1]
[edit] External links
- Flora MacDonald (politician) - Parliament of Canada biography
- Flora's mission CBC News slideshow on Flora MacDonald's work in Afghanistan.
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- 1926 births
- Living people
- Canadian people of Scottish descent
- Canadian women Members of Parliament
- Companions of the Order of Canada
- Members of the Canadian House of Commons from Ontario
- Members of the Order of Nova Scotia
- Members of the Order of Ontario
- Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada
- Members of the United Church of Canada
- Recipients of the Padma Shri
- Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs
- People from Kingston, Ontario
- Women in Ontario politics
- Female foreign ministers
- Canadian Secretaries of State for External Affairs
