Alexa McDonough
Encyclopedia
Alexa Ann Shaw McDonough OC (born August 11, 1944) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician who became the first woman to lead a major, recognized political party in Canada, when she was elected the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party
Nova Scotia New Democratic Party
The Nova Scotia New Democratic Party is a social-democratic provincial party in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is aligned with the federal New Democratic Party . Originally founded as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in 1932, it became the New Democratic Party in 1961. It became the governing...

's (NSNDP) leader in 1980. She served as a member of the Nova Scotia Legislature from 1981 to 1994, representing the Halifax Chebucto
Halifax Chebucto
Halifax Chebucto is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.It is one of several ridings within the Halifax Regional Municipality. It encompasses the neighbourhood known informally as West End, Halifax...

 and Halifax Fairview
Halifax Fairview
Halifax Fairview is a provincial electoral district in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.It was created in the re-distribution of 1993...

 electoral districts. She stepped down as the NSNDP's leader and as a member of the legislature in 1994. She subsequently ran for, and was elected, leader of the federal New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

 (NDP) in 1995. McDonough was elected the Member of Parliament (MP) for the federal electoral district of Halifax
Halifax (electoral district)
Halifax is a federal electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1867.Since October 14, 2008, its Member of the Parliament has been Megan Leslie of the New Democratic Party....

 in 1997. She stepped down as party leader in 2003, but continued to serve as an MP for two more terms, until 2008, when she retired from politics altogether. In 2009 she became the interim president of Mount Saint Vincent University
Mount Saint Vincent University
Mount Saint Vincent University is a university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1873 and is locally referred to as The Mount.-History:...

 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 in December of that year.

Early life and education

McDonough was born Alexa Ann Shaw in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 in 1944. Her parents were Jean MacKinnon and Lloyd Robert Shaw
Lloyd Shaw (socialist)
Lloyd Robert Shaw, CM was a Canadian businessman, political activist and organizer, and a member of the Order of Canada.-Life and career:...

, a wealthy businessman who was committed to progressive politics. He served as the first research director for the NDP's predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...

 and an early financial backer of the NDP when it formed in 1961.

McDonough was involved in social activism from an early age, when, at 14, she led her church youth group in publicizing the conditions of Africville, a low-income neighbourhood in Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

. She attended Queen's University
Queen's University
Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...

 in Kingston, Ontario, which was her family's alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...

. After two years, she transferred to Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...

 in Halifax, where she completed a sociology and psychology Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965. She became a social worker, and during the 1970 Nova Scotia general election
Nova Scotia general election, 1970
The 27th Nova Scotia general election was held on 13 October 1970 to elect members of the 50th House of Assembly of the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was won by the Liberal party....

, worked for Gerald Regan
Gerald Regan
Gerald Augustine Regan, PC is a Canadian politician, who served as the 19th Premier of Nova Scotia from 1970 to 1978....

's Liberal Party, writing that party's social policy platform. She quickly became disenchanted with Mr. Regan and his party, and joined the New Democratic Party in 1974.

Provincial leadership

McDonough's first foray into electoral politics occurred during the 1979
Canadian federal election, 1979
The Canadian federal election of 1979 was held on May 22, 1979 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 31st Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the defeat of Liberal Party of Canada after 11 years in power under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Joe Clark led the Progressive...

 and 1980 federal elections
Canadian federal election, 1980
The Canadian federal election of 1980 was held on February 18, 1980 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 32nd Parliament of Canada...

. In both of those elections, she ran unsuccessfully in the federal riding of Halifax
Halifax (electoral district)
Halifax is a federal electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1867.Since October 14, 2008, its Member of the Parliament has been Megan Leslie of the New Democratic Party....

. In the 1980 federal election, she lost to former Nova Scotia premier, Gerald Regan, the same politician that she once supported back in 1970. Just after the federal election, Jeremy Akerman
Jeremy Akerman
Jeremy Bernard Akerman is a former Canadian politician, writer and actor and a former leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party.-Biography:...

 stepped down as the Nova Scotia NDP's leader, in the spring of 1980. At this time, there was a growing rift between the Cape Breton Island and Mainland wings of the party. This rift exploded in June, when Paul MacEwan
Paul MacEwan
Paul MacEwan is a former politician in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, and long-time member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.-Biography:...

, the NDP MLA for Cape Breton Nova
Cape Breton Nova
Cape Breton Nova is a provincial electoral district in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Its Member of the Legislative Assembly since 2003 has been Gordie Gosse of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party...

, was expelled from the party due to his constant public airing of internal party disputes, including the implication that Akerman resigned due to "Trotskyist elements" from the mostly mainland-based provincial executive council. To make this situation worse for an incoming leader, was the fact that the NDP's four-members in the House of Assembly, all from Cape Breton constituencies, voted to keep him in the caucus. MacEwan's expulsion became one of the dominate issues during the leadership race that fall. In late September, Akerman was appointed to a top Nova Scotia civil service job that required him to both resign from the Legislature and terminate his membership in the NDP.James 'Buddy' MacEachern
James 'Buddy' MacEachern
James "Buddy" MacEachern was a Nova Scotia fisherman and politician. In the 1974 provincial election he was elected to the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly as the NDP member for Cape Breton Centre. When party leader Jeremy Akerman resigned, MacEachern became the party's interim leader by the caucus...

, a leadership candidate, and MLA for Cape Breton Centre
Cape Breton Centre
Cape Breton Centre is a provincial electoral district in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly....

, was made the interim leader on October 2.

Despite these internecine battles, and not having a seat in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly
Nova Scotia House of Assembly
The Nova Scotia Legislature, consisting of Her Majesty The Queen represented by the Lieutenant Governor and the House of Assembly, is the legislative branch of the provincial government of Nova Scotia, Canada...

, McDonough decided to enter the leadership race. The other candidate in the race to replace Akerman was Len Arsenault, the MLA for the Cape Breton North
Cape Breton North
Cape Breton North is a provincial electoral district in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly....

 riding. The leadership convention was convened in Halifax, with the leadership vote held on November 16, 1980. McDonough received 237 votes, compared to Arsenault's 42 votes, and McEachern's 41 votes, giving her a first ballot landslide victory. As a result of her victory, she became the first woman in Canada to lead a major recognized political party.

Her first order of business was to settle the Paul MacEwan question. On December 9, 1980, she managed to get her former leadership rivals to vote MacEwan out of the caucus and party. Since she did not have a seat in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, the party was left with just two seats, because MacEwan was now an independent, and Akerman's seat was left vacant due to his resignation. For almost a year, she would sit in the Assembly's visitors gallery until she could run for a seat in the 1981 Nova Scotia general election
Nova Scotia general election, 1981
The 30th Nova Scotia general election was held on October 6, 1981 to elect members of the 53rd House of Assembly of the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It was won by the Progressive Conservative party.* vote share included in "other"....

. McDonough's first provincial election as leader was fought in the Halifax Chebucto
Halifax Chebucto
Halifax Chebucto is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.It is one of several ridings within the Halifax Regional Municipality. It encompasses the neighbourhood known informally as West End, Halifax...

 riding, where the Liberals and Conservatives were more or less evenly matched in terms of voter support, and the NDP was a distant third in the previous election. She won her seat, the first one for the NDP in Mainland Nova Scotia, but the NDP lost all of its Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....

 seats in the process. She spent the next three years as the only New Democrat, and the only woman in the House of Assembly, where she was the target of sexist attitudes, and personal attacks. She took on the "old boys' network", that permeated within Nova Scotia's politics at the time, by attempting to dismantle the province's entrenched patronage system.

McDonough was personally popular throughout Nova Scotia, consistently being the voters' top choice in leadership polls, but her popularity did not rub-off on the party. She led the party through three more elections, eventually building the caucus up to three members: all from the mainland, including future Nova Scotia NDP leader, Robert Chisholm. After fourteen years as the Nova Scotia NDP leader, which at the time, McDonough was the longest currently serving leader of a major political party,she stepped down on November 19, 1994. John Holm
John Holm
John Holm is a Canadian politician from Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia in the Halifax Regional Municipality.Holm served as the New Democratic Party, Member of the Legislative Assembly for the electoral district of Sackville from 1984 until it was redistributed in 1993, then continued to serve the...

, the NDP's Sackville-Cobequid
Sackville-Cobequid
Sackville—Cobequid is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.Its Member of the Legislative Assembly since 2003 has been Dave Wilson of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party .-Members of the Legislative Assembly:*Dave...

 MLA, took over as interim leader, until Chisholm was elected leader in 1996.

Federal leadership

As the fortunes of the Nova Scotia NDP were slowly rising during the mid-1990s, the same could not be said of its federal counterpart. The 1993 Canadian federal election was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for the NDP. Under Audrey McLaughlin
Audrey McLaughlin
Audrey McLaughlin, PC, OC was leader of Canada's New Democratic Party from 1989 to 1995. She was the first female leader of a political party with representation in the Canadian House of Commons, as well as the first federal political party leader to represent an electoral district in a Canadian...

's leadership, the party suffered its worst defeat since the late 1950s, in terms of seats, when it was then called the CCF. When looking at the popular vote, it was the worst ever election for a federal social-democratic party in the 20th century, with just seven percent of the vote. The party only had nine seats, three short of the twelve seats needed to have official party status in the House of Commons, and all the extra funding, research, office space and Question Period privileges it accords. In the aftermath of the 1993 election, the party set about reforming its policies and purpose, with McLaughlin announcing on April 18, 1994, that she would step down as leader by 1996. McLaughlin, faced with internal squabbles eerily like the ones that occurred in the Nova Scotia party back in 1980, advanced her departure from the end of 1996 to the end of 1995. With an internal party atmosphere that could best be described as toxic, McDonough entered the leadership race in the spring of 1995. The conditions were similar to the ones she faced during her first leadership campaign in 1980: a divided party that was self-immolating.

Prior to the NDP leadership convention on October 14, 1995, McDonough was widely viewed as an also-ran behind the leading contenders, Svend Robinson
Svend Robinson
Svend Robinson is a former Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 2004, representing the suburban Vancouver-area constituency of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party...

 and Lorne Nystrom
Lorne Nystrom
Lorne Edmund Nystrom, PC a Canadian politician, was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1968 to 1993 when he lost his reelection bid. He returned to parliament in 1997 and served until 2004...

, but at the convention she placed second on the first ballot, ahead of Nystrom in what was almost a three way vote split. Although Robinson had placed first on that ballot, he felt that most of Nystrom's supporters would go to McDonough on the second ballot, giving her the victory. Thus, he conceded to McDonough before a second ballot could be held, and moved a motion to formally appoint her as the new leader.

McDonough inherited a party which had won just nine seats in the 1993 federal election, but in the 1997 election
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...

, her first as leader, the party won 21 seats, including a historic breakthrough in the Atlantic provinces. McDonough was elected as the Member of Parliament for the federal riding of Halifax
Halifax (electoral district)
Halifax is a federal electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1867.Since October 14, 2008, its Member of the Parliament has been Megan Leslie of the New Democratic Party....

, the same riding she ran unsuccessfully for in 1979 and 1980. She would continue to win it consecutively, three more times until she retired from politics in 2008.

During the next few years, McDonough's leadership of the party elicited controversy. Union leaders were lukewarm in their support of her, often threatening to break away from the NDP, in particular, the Canadian Auto Workers
Canadian Auto Workers
The Canadian Auto Workers is one of Canada's largest and highest profile social unions. While rooted in Ontario's large auto plants of Windsor, Brampton, Oakville, St...

's president Buzz Hargrove
Buzz Hargrove
Basil Eldon "Buzz" Hargrove, OC is the former National President of the Canadian Auto Workers trade union...

. She was widely seen within the NDP as trying to pull the party toward the centre of the political spectrum, in the Third Way
Third way (centrism)
The Third Way refers to various political positions which try to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of right-wing economic and left-wing social policies. Third Way approaches are commonly viewed from within the first- and second-way perspectives as...

 mode of Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

, although when she made her leader's speech at the party's August 1999 Ottawa policy convention, she attempted to distance herself from "Third Way" policies by stating: "We must lay out a new way for Canadians to navigate in the 21st century. Not an old way, not a 'third way,' but a made-in-Canada way...." A vote on a resolution to formally adopt Third Way policies in the party's platform, was defeated, as many union leaders opposed it and McDonough's "Canadian Way".

The Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...

 under its new leader Stockwell Day
Stockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...

 presented a further challenge to McDonough's NDP. Fearful of the prospect of a Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...

 government, many NDP supporters moved to the Liberals. As well, two NDP MPs, Rick Laliberté
Rick Laliberte
Rick Laliberte is a former Canadian Member of Parliament for the riding of Churchill River, a riding that encompasses the northern half of the province of Saskatchewan....

 and Angela Vautour
Angela Vautour
Angela Vautour is a former Canadian politician, who represented the electoral district of Beauséjour—Petitcodiac in the House of Commons from 1997 to 2000....

, crossed the floor
Crossing the floor
In politics, crossing the floor has two meanings referring to a change of allegiance in a Westminster system parliament.The term originates from the British House of Commons, which is configured with the Government and Opposition facing each other on rows of benches...

 to other party caucuses, reducing the NDP caucus to 19 seats. In the 2000 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2000
The 2000 Canadian federal election was held on November 27, 2000, to elect 301 Members of Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons of the 37th Parliament of Canada....

, the NDP was held to just 13 seats, and its 8.5 percent of the popular vote, was near its historic low from the 1993 campaign. About the only solace the NDP and McDonough could take from the 2000 campaign was their efforts were at least able to maintain official party status in the House of Commons, unlike McLaughlin in the 1993 campaign.

After the disappointing performance in the 2000 federal election, there were calls for party renewal, again. Some party activists perceived that the NDP had moved to the centre of the political spectrum and wanted to change that by bringing in social/political activists outside of the parliamentary process. They called their movement the New Politics Initiative
New Politics Initiative
New Politics InitiativeFounded:2001Dissolved:2004Political ideology:social democracy,democratic socialismThe New Politics Initiative was a faction of Canada's New Democratic Party...

, or NPI. Another group, called NDProgress
NDProgress
NDProgress was a pressure group or faction within the Canadian federal New Democratic Party. Founded in 2000, NDProgress pushed for structural reform of the party as a means of increasing its electoral success....

, wanted to reform the party's internal structures, with procedural changes to how leaders were elected and limiting how much control Labour Unions had in the party. The NPI proposal to create a new party from the ashes of the NDP, was opposed by McDonough, and by former NDP leader, Ed Broadbent. The NPI resolution was voted down when it was presented at the party's November 2001 Winnipeg policy convention. NDProgress's resolution — to have a "One Member-One Vote" election for party leader, including a provision to limit organized labour's allotment of ballots to a maximum of 25 percent — passed. The 2001 Winnipeg convention was also where McDonough easily defeated a leadership challenge by Socialist Caucus
New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus
The New Democratic Party Socialist Caucus is an unofficial left-wing faction within Canada's New Democratic Party. Its manifesto maintains that the New Democratic Party has moved too far to the right, and is in danger of becoming indistinguishable from the Liberal Party...

 member Marcel Hatch
Marcel Hatch
Marcel Hatch, born November 4, 1954 in Spokane, Washington, is an American-born graphic designer, gay rights and Trotskyist political activist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Hatch joined the Freedom Socialist Party while living in Seattle and subsequently launched its Canadian...

, who was also an NPI supporter.

The issue that highlighted McDonough's federal leadership, occurred during the twilight of her career: the fight against the Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....

 and general anti-Arab sentiment that swept through Canada and the United States in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in September 2001. She led the charge on the national scene to repatriate Mahar Arar, an Arab-Canadian who was wrongly detained as a terrorist by United States border officials, on an erroneous tip from Canada's secret service. Throughout 2002 and 2003, McDonough campaigned for his release. When he was released, his wife, Monia Mazigh
Monia Mazigh
Monia Mazigh is a Canadian academic best known for her efforts to free her husband Maher Arar from a Syrian prison. A resident of Ottawa, Ontario, she was the New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of Ottawa South, a traditionally Liberal riding, in the 2004 federal election.She was born...

, joined the NDP and became a candidate for them in the 2004 federal election, out of recognition for the support McDonough and the party showed for her and her husband.

With Brian Masse
Brian Masse
Brian S. Masse is a Canadian politician. He has served in the Canadian House of Commons since 2002, representing the riding of Windsor West as a member of the New Democratic Party....

's May 2002 by-election victory, in the Windsor West
Windsor West
Windsor West is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1968.The district consists of the part of the city of Windsor lying west and south of a line drawn from the U.S...

 riding, the party's caucus grew to 14 members. A few weeks later, on June 6, 2002, McDonough used this positive turn in electoral fortunes to announce that she was stepping down as NDP leader. On January 25, 2003, at the Toronto leadership convention
New Democratic Party leadership election, 2003
The New Democratic Party leadership election of 2003 was held to replace New Democratic Party of Canada leader Alexa McDonough, after her retirement...

, she was succeeded by Jack Layton
Jack Layton
John Gilbert "Jack" Layton, PC was a Canadian social democratic politician and the Leader of the Official Opposition. He was the leader of the New Democratic Party from 2003 to 2011, and previously sat on Toronto City Council, serving at times during that period as acting mayor and deputy mayor of...

. She was re-elected to Parliament in the 2004 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2004
The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...

 and again in 2006
Canadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...

. In the NDP's shadow cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...

, McDonough served as the critic for International Development, International Cooperation and Peace Advocacy.

Retirement

On June 2, 2008, McDonough announced that she would not re-offer in the riding of Halifax in the next federal election. She made the announcement at the Lord Nelson Hotel
Lord Nelson Hotel
The Lord Nelson Hotel is a grand hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located on the corner of Spring Garden and South Park Streets across from the Halifax Public Gardens. It was built in 1927 by a consortium of investors led by the Canadian Pacific Railway who wanted a Halifax anchor to...

, the same place where she celebrated her 1997 victory as the MP for Halifax. McDonough said she would continue on as the MP for Halifax until the next federal election
Canadian federal election, 2008
The 2008 Canadian federal election was held on Tuesday, October 14, 2008 to elect members to the Canadian House of Commons of the 40th Canadian Parliament after the previous parliament had been dissolved by the Governor General on September 7, 2008...

.

On June 29, 2009, it was announced that McDonough was named the new interim president of Mount Saint Vincent University
Mount Saint Vincent University
Mount Saint Vincent University is a university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was established in 1873 and is locally referred to as The Mount.-History:...

, in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

. Her one year appointment began in August, 2009. It was announced on December 30, 2009, that she will be appointed an officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 for her pioneering work as both the Nova Scotia and Federal leader of the New Democratic Party.

Personal life

Her first marriage was to Halifax lawyer, Peter McDonough, with whom she had two sons: Justin and Travis. In 1993 she separated from Peter McDonough, and is now divorced from him, though she claims that her political career did not play a part in it. In 1994, just before she stepped down as Nova Scotia leader, she had a hysterectomy, and waited until she recuperated before she announced her resignation. During her time as leader of the federal NDP, McDonough was romantically involved with David MacDonald, a former Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 MP and cabinet minister. MacDonald ran as the NDP candidate in Toronto Centre—Rosedale
Toronto Centre
Toronto Centre is a federal electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1872 to 1925, and since 1935, under the names Centre Toronto , Toronto Centre , Rosedale and Toronto Centre—Rosedale .Toronto Centre covers the heart of...

 in the 1997 election
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...

; he had been defeated as the PC incumbent in the riding just one election prior. McDonough's family continues to grow, following the birth of two grandchildren.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK