The Passing of Two Backroom Girls
Recent years have seen remarkable advances by women in Canadian elective politics. They account for five of the ten current provincial premiers including those in the four most populous provinces (Kathy Dunderdale in Newfoundland and Labrador; Paulene Marois in Quebec; Kathleen Wynne in Ontario; Alison Redford in Alberta and Christy Clark in British Columbia) as well as the Government Leader in Nunavut, Eva Aariak.
The path to success for these high profile women political leaders was blazed not just by an earlier generation of female elected politicians, but by a legion of politically savvy “backroom girls” who were never members of the House of Commons or of a provincial legislature, but carved out an influential role for women in the political process as fund raisers, policy makers, political organizers, speechwriters and campaign advisors for their respective parties.
This blog is a tribute to two members of that less visible group who passed away this month in their 80’s- Barbara Walker of Halifax and Jean Pearce of Toronto and Vancouver. I had the privilege of knowing both of them personally- Barbara through my uncle, the late Richard Hatfield and Jean through our joint involvement in Flora Macdonald’s campaign for the federal Progressive Conservative party leadership in 1976.
They were both happy political warriors. It was truly written of Barbara in her obituary that she was “fascinated by politics. She worked tirelessly for the Progressive Conservative Party…doing any job she was asked to undertake. She loved every minute of it.” Jean’s obituary cited her as an activist “in municipal, provincial and worldwide politics.” Both were prominent in their chosen careers- Jean as an executive with Bell Canada and Barbara as a teacher and education administrator. Both took politics and being an active citizen seriously, but also had the gift of enjoying it and making it fun for themselves and those around them.
I will always remember fondly Barbara’s kindness to me when I came to St. Mary’s University in Halifax in the fall of 1978 to replace a professor who was taking his sabbatical. She was then involved in her one and only foray into electoral politics as a candidate for the P.C. nomination in a Halifax constituency in that year’s provincial election when John Buchanan’s Tories upset Gerry Reagan’s Liberal government.
She lost the contest for that nomination by one vote which she later traced to the fact that one of her supporters, a “lady of the evening” who was one of her former students, did not get to the convention on time to vote for her because one of her clients kept her too long. The seat went P.C. by a comfortable margin in the election. Barbara was a true “people person” and would have done well as an elected politician and would have been a good bet for Minister of Education in Buchanan’s cabinet. However, that was not to be and her good sense and good humour were put to use through service on many local arts organizations, the boards of two universities, the Nova Scotia Power Corporation and the Immigration Advisory Council.
Jean was also interested in Immigration issues and served on the federal Immigration and Refugee Board as well as a Commonwealth Observer in the Independence Election in Rhodesia in 1980 and as a United Nations Observer on the mission to verify the Referendum in Eritrea in 1993. She instructed her family to hold no public memorial service, “but she always asked that anyone who was her friend would have fond memories and an interesting life.” As one who was a friend I certainly have fond memories of her and have had an interesting life, in no small part, because politics brought me into contact with so many outstanding women such as her and Barbara. With their passing two more of that pioneering generation of women, born around the Great Depression, who opened up every aspect of political life in Canada to women from the 1950’s to the 1990’s are no more. But their legacy, memory and example live on.