John A Macdonald
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Alexander Mackenzie
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John Abbott
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John Thompson
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Mackenzie Bowell
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Charles Tupper
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Wilfred Laurier
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Robert Borden
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Arthur Meighen
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William Lyon Mackenzie
King
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RB Bennett
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Louis St Laurent
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John Diefenbaker
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Lester Pearson
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Pierre Trudeau
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Joe Clark
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John Turner
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Brian Mulroney
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Kim Campbell
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Jean Chretien
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Paul
Martin
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Stephen Harper
The rise of Kim Campbell in
Federal Canadian politics was relatively fast as was her ultimate
demise. Canada's 19th Prime Minister was also it's first female PM.
Campbell was born
Avril Phaedra
Douglas Campbell
on March 10th, 1947 in Port Alberni,
British Columbia. Her family moved to Vancouver soon after she was
born and at age 12 her mother left her home and she decided that
Avril would not continue to be her name and from there on in she
would be called Kim. She attended Prince of Wales High School where
she was elected the first ever female class President which was not
t be the first male only barrier she would bring down
She attended the University of
British Columbia where she earned her BA in 1969 in Political
Science. She then went to the London School of Economics where she
worked on her PhD in Soviet Studies. She left early when she decided
to marry and move back to Vancouver in 1972 and began teaching at
UBC and Vancouver Community College. By 1980 she was back at UBC as
a student studying for her Law Degree.
Her interest in politics began to
take on more of a utilitarian shade when she decided to run for the
school board in Vancouver and served in that position from 1980 to
1984. Her first taste of the political life had stimulated her
ambition and her next step was into provincial politics when she ran
as a Social Credit candidate in 1984. She lost but became a policy
advisor to Premier Bill Bennett and in 1987 she ran for the Socreds
again and won. Once in the Provincial Legislature she unabashedly
opposed the Premier's position on abortion by supporting more access
for women to abortion services.
Seeing no long term future in
provincial politics she switched to the Progressive Conservatives
and ran in the 1988 Federal election and won in Vancouver Centre.
Prime Minister Mulroney brought her into the Cabinet in 1989 when
she was made Minister of State for Indian Affairs and Northern
Development. She worked hard in that ministry and was rewarded in
1990 when she was promoted to Minister of Justice and Attorney
General. Facing stiff opposition from members of her own party she
brought in tougher control of guns, and then took on the issue of
sexual assault by reaffirming the rights of the victims.
In 1993 as an election drew near,
she was moved to the Department of Defense and had to deal with the
controversial questions of buying new helicopters for the military.
She also had to deal with actions by Canadian Airborne units in
Somalia which while on peacekeeping duties had tortured and killed
some Somalis.
By 1993 the Progressive
Conservatives and Brian Mulroney had fallen to very low levels in
the polls and Mulroney realizing that he could not possibly win
another mandate, decided to step down. Many in the party were
looking for an edge in their next leader which might help
resuscitate their fortunes and help win the election. Campbell was
viewed as a dynamic, charismatic leader who might recreate the
momentum of Trudeaumania and capture the nations support as the
first female Prime Minister.
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She defeated Jean
Charest, a long-time Conservative stalwart and
highly respected member of the cabinet, in the
leadership race and on June 25, 1993, she became
Canada's first female Prime Minister. She was well
aware of the fate of John Turner a decade before
when he rushed into an election with only a slim
initial lead in the polls. She took some very
popular actions to start with, such as cutting the
number of Cabinet Ministers from 35 to 23, attending
the G7 summit in Tokyo and touring the country
in July and August. The polls showed her climbing
above 51% approval which was extremely high for a
Canadian Prime Minister. The Conservative gamble of
going with the relatively inexperienced candidate
with the momentum seemed to be paying off. By
September she was well ahead of the Liberal leader
Jean Chretien and had absorbed much of the support
of the Reform Party. She decide to call an election
for the fall and the writ was dropped an the race
was on.
Her lead in the
polls almost immediately began to fall and due to
inexperience and an uncoordinated Conservative
campaign strategy. As the campaign unfolded, the
voters were reminded of the unpopular Mulroney, to
which the Conservatives, realizing that Campbell was
more popular then Chretien, unleashed attack ads
against the Liberal leader. One in particular seemed
to mock Chretien's speech impediment and the
reaction nationwide was highly critical of Campbell
and the Conservatives. The election was lost and the
best that could be hoped for was a decent number of
MP's to form the opposition.
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As the results began to
come in on election night, the vote for the Liberals became
a landslide. The final results were Liberals - 177 seats,
Bloc = 54 seats, Reform Party 52 seats, NDP 9 seats,
Progressive Conservatives 2 seats and others - 1.
Several dynamics took hold
during the election including the separation of French
Canadian nationalist support from the Conservatives with the
Bloc benefitting. The weakness of the NDP also helped boost
the Liberal numbers as they consolidated the centre and left
vote. The resurgence of reform during the election also hurt
the Conservatives in the west. Campbell even lost her seat
in Vancouver Centre to the Liberals.
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Campbell resigned shortly after the election and
Jean Charest took over as leader of the 2 seat
Conservatives. Kim Campbell returned to teaching
Political Science at Harvard University. In 1996 she
was appointed as Consul General in Los Angeles, a
post which she held until 2000. She has remained
very active in many areas but has taken particular
pride in her work for the advance of women's
opportunities in many different arenas.
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