AUDREY McLAUGHLIN:
First Woman to Lead Major Political Party
Audrey McLaughlin was born in Dutton, Ontario in 1936. She had a strong background as a community and social worker, serving as Executive Director of the Metro Toronto branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association and teaching for some years in Ghana. She moved to the Yukon in 1979 and ran a consulting firm in Whitehorse.
She was first elected to the House of Commons for the Yukon in a by-election in 1987 and re-elected in the general elections of 1988 and 1993.
Chosen as Leader of the Party on December 2, 1989, Audrey McLaughlin became the first woman to lead a major federal party in Canada.
For the next six years she led the Party through a tumultuous time during which the NDP formed the provincial governments in Ontario in 1990, under the leadership of Bob Rae, and in British Columbia in 1991, under Michael Harcourt. The NDP returned to government under Roy Romanow in Saskatchewan.
But Canadians, distressed by nine years of government under Conservative Brian Mulroney, turned to the Liberals in the 1993 general election and, as a result, only nine New Democrat Members of Parliament were elected, three less than that required for official party status in the House of Commons.
Audrey McLaughlin stepped down as leader in October 1995 and announced she would not seek re-election. She later served as President of the Socialist International Women and special representative for the Government of the Yukon on Circumpolar Affairs.
(Refer NDP Canada)
Drawn in 1993 by pk
UofT
What is the point of this video?
DONMUNTEAN 4 years ago