Close X
Thursday, November 28, 2024
ADVT 
National

Former senator, MP and journalist Pat Carney is dead at the age of 88

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 26 Jul, 2023 05:03 PM
  • Former senator, MP and journalist Pat Carney is dead at the age of 88

Pat Carney, who pioneered roles for women in Canadian politics and journalism, has died at the age of 88. 

Her niece, Jill Carney, confirmed in a statement that the former MP and senator passed away Tuesday. 

Pat Carney was the first female Conservative member of Parliament elected in B.C. and the first female Conservative appointed from the province to the Senate. 

Born in Shanghai, China, in May 1935, Carney was educated in Canada and worked as a journalist and economic consultant in the Northwest Territories and Yukon before entering politics. 

She was first elected to the House of Commons in February 1980 in the riding of Vancouver Centre.

Her website says she began her journalism career in the 1960s and was the first female business columnist writing for daily newspapers, including the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province. 

It says Carney was also the first woman in every government portfolio she held, serving as the minister of energy, minister of international trade and president of the Treasury Board in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet. 

Carney also pioneered the development of distance learning, and in 1977 received a B.C. Institute of Technology award for innovation in education.

After retiring from politics, Carney continued to contribute to newspapers. Last year, she wrote about “the most chilling moment” of her political career, when she voted against her own government’s anti-abortion bill in 1991.

The bill came within a single vote of being enshrined in law.

“There was no doubt about how I would vote. I had told my voters that I believed a decision on an abortion was the right of a woman, her conscience and her doctors,” she wrote in the Globe and Mail.

“For personal reasons, I would not have an abortion, but that was my choice; I knew other women had their own reasons to make a different one."

Carney said in her 2007 farewell speech to the Senate that her favourite story about entering politics came when she tried to shake the hand of an elderly woman in downtown Vancouver in 1979. 

“The benign-looking senior snatched her hand away and snapped viciously: ‘I would rather my hand withered and dropped off before shaking hands with a Conservative.’ She then walked away,” Carney said.

Carney was a mother of two and lived on Saturna Island, one of B.C.’s Gulf Islands. 

 

MORE National ARTICLES

New housing minister says closing door on newcomers is no solution to housing crunch

New housing minister says closing door on newcomers is no solution to housing crunch
Sean Fraser, who previously served as immigration minister, was sworn in Wednesday morning as part of a Liberal government cabinet shuffle aimed at showcasing a fresh team ahead of the next federal election. Strong population growth through immigration is adding pressure to housing demand at a time when the country is struggling with an affordability crisis. 

New housing minister says closing door on newcomers is no solution to housing crunch

B.C. launches $10.5m rebate for businesses' vandalism repairs, prevention measures

B.C. launches $10.5m rebate for businesses' vandalism repairs, prevention measures
British Columbia is launching a $10.5-million program to help small businesses recover costs due to crime and vandalism. Economic Development Minister Brenda Bailey says the program will begin in the fall and is open to small businesses that suffered vandalism damage retroactive to Jan. 1 this year. 

B.C. launches $10.5m rebate for businesses' vandalism repairs, prevention measures

Two dead in Calgary house fire

Two dead in Calgary house fire
Two people had escaped the home and a neighbour had pulled a third person from the building and attempted life-saving efforts. Firefighters then found a fourth person in the basement as they battled the flames.  

Two dead in Calgary house fire

Staff at lodge for LNG workers in Kitimat, B.C., win 40% pay bump, averting strike

Staff at lodge for LNG workers in Kitimat, B.C., win 40% pay bump, averting strike
Employees at a lodge housing workers for LNG Canada's under-construction facility in Kitimat, B.C., have won wage increases of up to 40 per cent, averting a strike. The workers' union, Unite Here Local 40, says in a statement the new deal was reached after mediation with the employer at the BC Labour Board.  

Staff at lodge for LNG workers in Kitimat, B.C., win 40% pay bump, averting strike

Cooler weather sees B.C. wildfire numbers dip, but drought still poses concern

Cooler weather sees B.C. wildfire numbers dip, but drought still poses concern
The number of active wildfires in British Columbia has dipped below 450 as cooler weather and recent rain has cut the fire risk, although another hot spell could wipe out those gains as large sections of the province wilt under severe drought.

Cooler weather sees B.C. wildfire numbers dip, but drought still poses concern

Trudeau names new cabinet, shifting focus to economy, housing ahead of next election

Trudeau names new cabinet, shifting focus to economy, housing ahead of next election
Two-thirds of cabinet portfolios have switched hands, with seven rookie ministers coming in to replace the seven ministers who are leaving. Five of the new ministers represent constituencies in Ontario, one is from British Columbia and one from Quebec.  

Trudeau names new cabinet, shifting focus to economy, housing ahead of next election