Flora Isabel MacDonald

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Flora Isabel MacDonald , PC , CC , O.Ont , ONS (born June 3, 1926 in North Sydney , Nova Scotia , † July 26, 2015 in Ottawa , Ontario ) was a Canadian politician .

Life

After completing school, Flora Isabel MacDonald became an employee of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC) and was initially a secretary in the party headquarters, before soon afterwards she headed the party's operational center as executive director. In 1965 she sided with the opponents of the party chairman and former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and was dismissed for this reason in 1966.

In the 1972 election she was first elected to the House of Commons and represented the constituency of Kingston and the Islands . MacDonald, who was particularly concerned with foreign policy issues, was also the first female graduate of the National Defense College in 1972 .

After the resignation of Robert Stanfield , she ran for the office of chairman of the PC in February 1976 and led a populist election campaign in the run-up to the party congress , in which she asked her supporters, among other things, to support them with one dollar each . After her defeat in the second ballot, she then asked her supporters for support from Joe Clark , who was then elected chairman of the PC in the third ballot.

After Clark after the general election in May 1979 of a prime minister 's minority government was, it was Clark to Secretary of State ( Secretary of State for External Affairs appointed) and the first woman to a cabinet post of this importance. She proved to be very suitable for this office and was praised by other delegates in particular for her consistent appearance vis-à-vis the government of Vietnam during the international meeting on the problem of Vietnam refugees ( boat people ) in Geneva in July 1979.

When Clark suffered a defeat in the early general election in February 1980 , she left the cabinet after Pierre Trudeau of the Liberal Party of Canada became Prime Minister on March 3, 1979.

After the PC won the 1984 election , she was appointed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in September 1984, first as Minister of Employment and Immigration in his cabinet. As part of a cabinet reshuffle, she then took over the post of Minister of Communications in June 1986 and held this position until December 1988. In the same year, she lost her mandate in the general election in 1988 and left politics, but was temporarily President of the World Federalists (WFM) from Canada and other organizations.

For her services, she was awarded the Order of Canada in 1993 and a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1999. In 1999 she also received the Pearson Peace Medal , which is awarded annually by the United Nations Association in Canada. In 2003 she received an honorary doctorate from Saint Mary's University Halifax .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Riannon Westall: veteran federal politician Flora MacDonald dead at age 89 . In: thestar.com , July 26, 2015, accessed July 26, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME MacDonald, Flora Isabel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH North Sydney , Nova Scotia , Canada
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 2015
Place of death Ottawa , Ontario , Canada