Sharon Carstairs

Sharon Carstairs PC (birth name: Sharon Connolly ; born April 26, 1942 in Halifax , Nova Scotia ) is a Canadian politician of the Liberal Party of Canada , who represented the province of Manitoba as a member of the Canadian Senate for more than 17 years .

Life

Sharon Carstairs is the daughter of Harold Joseph Connolly , who was Prime Minister of Nova Scotia for a short time from April to September 1954 and then Senator for Nova Scotia from 1955 to 1979 and who represented the Senate District of Halifax North in the Canadian Senate . After attending school, she completed a degree, which she first completed with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). She completed a subsequent postgraduate teacher training course with a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) and then worked as a teacher .

She began her political career in the province of Manitoba, where she was chairman of the Manitoba Liberal Party from March 1984 to November 1992 . In the provincial election of March 18, 1986 she was elected for the first time as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and represented the constituency of River Heights in this until her appointment as Senator in 1994 . During her parliamentary membership she was from 1988 to 1990 chairman of the faction of the Manitoba Liberal Party in the Legislative Assembly and the first woman in the history of Manitoba leader of the opposition ( Leader of the Opposition ).

September 15, 1994 Sharon Carstairs was at the suggestion of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien by Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn to Senator for Manitoba . She was a member of the Senate of Canada until she resigned from office on October 17, 2011. Your regular membership would have lasted until you reached the age limit of 75 on April 26, 2017.

During her membership in the Senate, she was first chairwoman of the Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs between February 1996 and April 1997 and then deputy chairwoman of the government faction ( Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate ) from September 1997 to October 1999 and subsequently from October 1999 to October 2000 both chair of a subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology dealing with topical issues of life and death and vice-chair of the special committee on illicit drugs.

Subsequently, Sharon Carstairs became Leader of the Government in the Senate on January 9, 2001 as leader of the Liberal Party parliamentary group and held this position in Canada's 26th Cabinet until the end of Chrétien's term on December 11 2003. At the same time, she was appointed Minister with special responsibility for palliative care by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien on March 14, 2001 , and she also held this office until December 11, 2003.

She later chaired the Special Committee on Aging from April 2006 to September 2008 and again from January to December 2009, and from April 2006 to September 2007 Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Human Rights . Most recently, between January 2009 and December 2009, she also acted as chairperson or vice-chairperson of the Parliament's Standing Joint Committee for the Parliamentary Library .

Publications

• Not one of the boys , 1993
• Dancing backwards: a social history of Canadian women in politics , co-author Tim Higgins, 2004
• Raising the bar: a roadmap for the future of palliative care in Canada , 2010
• Pages of reflection: a journal of essays by Senate pages , editor, 3 volumes, 2006–2010

Web links

• Sharon Carstairs - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)