‘True Leadership’: Nova Scotia Politicians Remember Icon Alexa McDonough | The Canadian News

Known across Canada simply as “Alexa”, former NS NDP and federal leader Alexa McDonough is remembered by former colleagues and the public as a trailblazer for women in politics.

One such woman is Megan Leslie, who succeeded McDonough as Member of Parliament for Halifax in 2008. She was saddened to learn of McDonough’s passing on Saturday.

“I hope her family understands what a gift Alexa was to so many of us,” Leslie said.

“I am very grateful that they have, in a way, shared it with us.”

MP Alexa McDonough walks to a news conference in Halifax on Monday June 2, 2008. McDonough announced her retirement from politics after 29 years with the NDP. (Peter Parsons/staff).

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Leslie, who is now executive director of the World Wildlife Fund Canada, says McDonough changed her perspective on politicians early in her career.

“The memory in my soul is how she really was this leader who would go boldly, and then turn around and reach out her hand to bring others with her,” Leslie said.

McDonough was the first woman to lead a major political party in the country, leading the Nova Scotia NDP from 1980 to 1994, and then the federal NDP from 1997 to 2002.

He is credited with laying the groundwork for Nova Scotia’s Dexter NDP government in 2009 and Jack Layton’s “Orange Wave” in 2011.

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The first time they met, Leslie was still a student at Dalhousie University and part of an activist group there. She and her colleagues discussed issues related to the anti-terrorism legislation currently before the House of Commons.

“Alexa reached out to us. We didn’t write him a letter. We did not send you a request. She contacted us and said… ‘Can I meet with you?’” Leslie said.

At that time, McDonough raised the bar very high.

“That was a real defining moment for me and I thought about what we could expect from our elected officials and what politics would look like,” Leslie said.

Once Leslie entered politics, McDonough became her mentor.

NDP MP Megan Leslie asks a question during question period at the House of Commons in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 3, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

“She introduced me to people, she gave me the scoop on a lot of things… But then she always took a step back because she knew she had to lead in any way she could,” Leslie said. “That is true leadership.”

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More than a party leader

King’s College journalism professor Stephen Kimber says he was grateful to have written McDonough’s biography in 2019.

While digging into his personal life and early career, Kimber said a lot of things surprised him. But a letter from the 1960s was shocking.

At the time, Alexa was a student at Smith College in the United States, studying social work. Her fiancé Peter McDonough, whom she would eventually marry, was back in Halifax.

“I was lucky with his correspondence at the time,” Kimber said.

“She said, ‘If I ever have to choose between a career as a social worker and being Mrs. Peter McDonough, I will always choose to be Mrs. Peter McDonough.'”

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Kimber was surprised to see that because “this is a woman who is a feminist icon,” she said.

“I realized that she went through the same journey that a lot of women went through in that period of the late ’60s and early ’70s. They went from having grown up with a very traditional view of their own role in the world, to a different view.”

“Alexa embodied that in so many ways,” Kimber said.

In the late 1970s, when McDonough began running for office, “very quickly [became] a role model” for women and others.

Lisa Lachance, NDP MLA representing the leadership of the Halifax Citadel-Sable Island, says having McDonough in the community has always been extraordinary and is saddened by the loss of an “icon”.

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“She was as a friend, as a member of the community, as a politician, really consistent in that compassionate but critical approach,” Lachance said.

“What a remarkable thing it must have been in this community, where you saw someone become this incredible trailblazer for women and others who may not feel like they belong in politics,” they said. “What a tremendous daily reminder that social change is possible.”

Lachance, who is genderqueer, says McDonough paved the way for them to further that legacy of gender diversity.

Lisa Lachance is the NDP’s elected MLA for the Halifax Citadel-Sable Island.

Elizabeth McSheffrey/Global News

“I was very impressed to read her biography and her acknowledgment of having to go downstairs to use the bathroom because there were no women’s bathrooms next to the cameras,” they said.

“That made my requests for a gender-neutral bathroom so much easier,” Lachance said. “I thought ‘This would be Alexa, even if this wasn’t for her, she would be asking for this.'”

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Stephen Kimber echoed that for many Nova Scotians, McDonough was more than just a political party leader.

“Alexa was ‘Alexa’ for people who weren’t NDP supporters.”

Opinion polls from the 1980s showed McDonough to be “Nova Scotia’s most respected politician, despite the NDP ranking third in Nova Scotia polls,” Kimber added.

In the biography, Kimber concluded that Alexa transcended party affiliation and gender.

The legacy he leaves is, he said, that of a person who has a moral center, who “always pointed in the right direction towards justice and truth.

“She is someone who is known to have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, which she was. But at the same time, he understood the importance of giving and making space for other people.”

This sentiment was echoed by Megan Leslie, who said that McDonough “never pretended to be the voice of other people in their experiences..

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“I want her to be remembered, this is going to sound weird, but for all the things we can forget,” Leslie said.

“When you think of Africville, you don’t think of Alexa McDonough, and you shouldn’t, but she was part of that fight and she used her voice.

“When you think of gay rights in Nova Scotia, you don’t think of Alexa McDonough, and you shouldn’t because she doesn’t come from that community, but she stood by that community in solidarity,” Leslie said, holding tears in her eyes. back.

“I just hope that people recognize those kinds of really powerful things that he did to promote justice in our province.”



Reference-globalnews.ca

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