Alexa McDonough, whose leadership of the Nova Scotia NDP in 1980 made her the first woman to lead a major political party in Canada, has died at the age of 77.
McDonough, who also became the leader of the federal New Democratic Party in 1995, died at a care home in Halifax on Saturday after a lengthy struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, her family said.
Known affectionately as simply Alexa, McDonough changed the face of politics in Canada and paved the way for other women to take their places at the pinnacles of political power. She was an inspiration to generations of New Democrats even after her retirement from politics 14 years ago.
The one-time social worker’s passion for social justice carried her first to the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia, where she helped craft the party’s social policy platform in the 1970 provincial election. But by 1974, disenchanted with the government of then-premier Gerald Regan, she found a new home in the NDP and never left.
Former federal and Nova Scotia NDP leader Alexa McDonough is shown giving a speech in Halifax on Aug. 14, 2009. (Tim Krochak/The Canadian Press)
McDonough never shied away from a challenge, failing twice to win a seat in the House of Commons before launching a bid for the leadership of the Nova Scotia NDP in 1980. The fact she didn’t have a seat in the provincial House of Assembly, nor much support in Cape Breton, home to her leadership rivals, did not hinder her efforts.
She handily beat the two to become the first woman in Canada to lead a major political party.
Nearly a year later, in the provincial general election, she won a seat in the district of Halifax Chebucto, the party’s first win on mainland Nova Scotia. It was a stunning upset, particularly for the Liberal incumbent who had laughed off the possibility of a McDonough win on election day.
For the next three years, she was a party of one and the only woman at Province House, home to Nova Scotia’s legislative assembly.
McDonough was greeted by supporters during a federal election campaign when she attended a rally in Corner Brook, N.L., on Nov. 25, 2000. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
The NDP didn’t meet the two-seat threshold to trigger extra public funding or earn recognized party status, so McDonough had no time to savour her first political victory. She had to carry on the fight of holding the PC government of John Buchanan accountable with a skeleton staff and on a shoestring budget.
Although a lone voice during her first three years in the legislature, McDonough was steadfast in her criticism of the “old boys club,” patronage and the way members of the House conducted themselves. She said she was subjected to sexist and misogynistic personal attacks as a result.
MLAs gave so little thought or consideration to women representatives that there wasn’t even a separate washroom available for female MLAs at Province House. McDonough had to line up to use the public washroom one floor below the chamber while her male colleagues had access to a washroom just steps from their seats.
McDonough thanks her granddaughter, six-year-old Abbie Jean McDonough, after announcing on June 2, 2008, she would not be seeking re-election. McDonough represented the NDP federally for 13 years. (Mike Dembeck/Canadian Press)
Although she enjoyed personal popularity, McDonough was not able to lead the party past the three-seat high-water mark it achieved in 1984 and again in the 1993 election. On Nov. 19, 1994, she resigned as leader with no definitive plans for her future.
“It’s very, very important to me that you understand I do it with total joy, and with no sense of regret whatsoever,” she told supporters the day she announced her decision.
John Holm, her caucus colleague who would take over as leader, paid tribute to her at a party event later that year: “I have, over the years, grown to not only love and respect Alexa, but to admire her tremendous courage and integrity.”
Barely a year later, McDonough’s burning desire to effect change, particularly for women, drove her to a new challenge, federal politics. She threw her hat into the ring to try to win the leadership of Canada’s New Democratic Party, in what was widely seen as a long-shot challenge to the perceived front-runners, Svend Robinson and Lorne Nystrom.
Once again, she defied the odds and was elected leader in 1995.
Clarence Williams, 89, waited patiently for McDonough at a federal election campaign rally at a Canadian Auto Workers hall in Windsor, Ont., on Nov. 24, 2000. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)
In the House of Commons, as she did previously at Province House, McDonough championed the need for strong social programs, a more caring and compassionate government, and gender equity.
She made bigger electoral gains during her time leading the federal party than she did during her 14 years at the helm of the provincial party. The year she first won her seat in the House of Commons, in 1997, New Democrats more than doubled their seat count from nine to 21.
She characterized that election as a fight for a better Canada.
“This campaign is going to be about a real debate between what kind of a Canada we’re going to build, what kind of services are going to be there for working people, for working families,” McDonough said.
But the next election brought a disappointing result, and in 2003 McDonough resigned to sit as a member of the team rather than its captain. She left politics for good in 2008, choosing to do so surrounded by family, friends and former colleagues at the Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax, in the same room she had launched her political career 29 years previously.
“It’s time for the torch to be passed to the upcoming generations,” she told reporters and supporters on June 2, 2008.
McDonough, left, is greeted by Ontario NDP environment critic Marilyn Churley as she arrives to a federal election campaign stop in Toronto on Oct. 22, 2000. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
Born in Ottawa in 1944, McDonough grew up in a home where her father, Lloyd Shaw, and her mother, Jean MacKinnon, were active in the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, a precursor to the NDP.
Because McDonough came from a prominent Nova Scotia family, her political rivals sometimes dismissed her as having been born with a silver spoon in her mouth, fighting for causes from a position of privilege.
Criticism, however, seemed to spur her on rather than discourage her.
Watch Alexa McDonough speak in 2013 about her breast cancer diagnosis:
Alexa McDonough opens up about cancer
9 years ago
Duration 4:06
The former NDP leader said she received the news about four months ago. 4:06
She was recognized for her long and distinguished political career. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 2009 and the Order of Nova Scotia in 2012, the same year the Association of Former Parliamentarians gave her a lifetime achievement award.
Her health had been an issue for more than a decade. She was treated for breast cancer and was later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Through it all she was surrounded and aided by her family and closest friends, some of whom were political allies and close confidants.
McDonough leaves behind two sons, Justin and Travis.
MONTREAL – A Quebec political party has voted to support one of its members facing backlash for saying that racialized people are regularly disparaged at the provincial legislature.
Québec solidaire members adopted an emergency resolution at the party’s convention late Sunday condemning the hate directed at Haroun Bouazzi, without endorsing his comments.
Bouazzi, who represents a Montreal riding, had told a community group that he hears comments every day at the legislature that portray North African, Muslim, Black or Indigenous people as the “other,” and that paint their cultures are dangerous or inferior.
Other political parties have said Bouazzi’s remarks labelled elected officials as racists, and the co-leaders of his own party had rebuked him for his “clumsy and exaggerated” comments.
Bouazzi, who has said he never intended to describe his colleagues as racist, thanked his party for their support and for their commitment to the fight against systemic racism.
Party co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois said after Sunday’s closed-door debate that he considers the matter to be closed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2024.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrats who control both chambers of the Virginia legislature are hoping to make good on promises made on the campaign trail, including becoming the first Southern state to expand constitutional protections for abortion access.
The House Privileges and Elections Committee advanced three proposed constitutional amendments Wednesday, including a measure to protect reproductive rights. Its members also discussed measures to repeal a now-defunct state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and ways to revise Virginia’s process to restore voting rights for people who served time for felony crimes.
“This meeting was an important next step considering the moment in history we find ourselves in,” Democratic Del. Cia Price, the committee chair, said during a news conference. “We have urgent threats to our freedoms that could impact constituents in all of the districts we serve.”
The at-times raucous meeting will pave the way for the House and Senate to take up the resolutions early next year after lawmakers tabled the measures last January. Democrats previously said the move was standard practice, given that amendments are typically introduced in odd-numbered years. But Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert said Wednesday the committee should not have delved into the amendments before next year’s legislative session. He said the resolutions, particularly the abortion amendment, need further vetting.
“No one who is still serving remembers it being done in this way ever,” Gilbert said after the meeting. “Certainly not for something this important. This is as big and weighty an issue as it gets.”
The Democrats’ legislative lineup comes after Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, to the dismay of voting-rights advocates, rolled back a process to restore people’s civil rights after they completed sentences for felonies. Virginia is the only state that permanently bans anyone convicted of a felony from voting unless a governor restores their rights.
“This amendment creates a process that is bounded by transparent rules and criteria that will apply to everybody — it’s not left to the discretion of a single individual,” Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, the patron of the voting rights resolution, which passed along party lines, said at the news conference.
Though Democrats have sparred with the governor over their legislative agenda, constitutional amendments put forth by lawmakers do not require his signature, allowing the Democrat-led House and Senate to bypass Youngkin’s blessing.
Instead, the General Assembly must pass proposed amendments twice in at least two years, with a legislative election sandwiched between each statehouse session. After that, the public can vote by referendum on the issues. The cumbersome process will likely hinge upon the success of all three amendments on Democrats’ ability to preserve their edge in the House and Senate, where they hold razor-thin majorities.
It’s not the first time lawmakers have attempted to champion the three amendments. Republicans in a House subcommittee killed a constitutional amendment to restore voting rights in 2022, a year after the measure passed in a Democrat-led House. The same subcommittee also struck down legislation supporting a constitutional amendment to repeal an amendment from 2006 banning marriage equality.
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted 16-5 in favor of legislation protecting same-sex marriage, with four Republicans supporting the resolution.
“To say the least, voters enacted this (amendment) in 2006, and we have had 100,000 voters a year become of voting age since then,” said Del. Mark Sickles, who sponsored the amendment as one of the first openly gay men serving in the General Assembly. “Many people have changed their opinions of this as the years have passed.”
A constitutional amendment protecting abortion previously passed the Senate in 2023 but died in a Republican-led House. On Wednesday, the amendment passed on party lines.
If successful, the resolution proposed by House Majority Leader Charniele Herring would be part of a growing trend of reproductive rights-related ballot questions given to voters. Since 2022, 18 questions have gone before voters across the U.S., and they have sided with abortion rights advocates 14 times.
The voters have approved constitutional amendments ensuring the right to abortion until fetal viability in nine states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Vermont. Voters also passed a right-to-abortion measure in Nevada in 2024, but it must be passed again in 2026 to be added to the state constitution.
As lawmakers debated the measure, roughly 18 members spoke. Mercedes Perkins, at 38 weeks pregnant, described the importance of women making decisions about their own bodies. Rhea Simon, another Virginia resident, anecdotally described how reproductive health care shaped her life.
Then all at once, more than 50 people lined up to speak against the abortion amendment.
“Let’s do the compassionate thing and care for mothers and all unborn children,” resident Sheila Furey said.
The audience gave a collective “Amen,” followed by a round of applause.
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Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting him in charge of a massive agency that oversees everything from drug, vaccine and food safety to medical research and the social safety net programs Medicare and Medicaid.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site announcing the appointment. Kennedy, he said, would “Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race, abandoned his bid after striking a deal to give Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the administration.
He and Trump have since become good friends, with Kennedy frequently receiving loud applause at Trump’s rallies.
The expected appointment was first reported by Politico Thursday.
A longtime vaccine skeptic, Kennedy is an attorney who has built a loyal following over several decades of people who admire his lawsuits against major pesticide and pharmaceutical companies. He has pushed for tighter regulations around the ingredients in foods.
With the Trump campaign, he worked to shore up support among young mothers in particular, with his message of making food healthier in the U.S., promising to model regulations imposed in Europe. In a nod to Trump’s original campaign slogan, he named the effort “Make America Healthy Again.”
It remains unclear how that will square with Trump’s history of deregulation of big industries, including food. Trump pushed for fewer inspections of the meat industry, for example.
Kennedy’s stance on vaccines has also made him a controversial figure among Democrats and some Republicans, raising question about his ability to get confirmed, even in a GOP-controlled Senate. Kennedy has espoused misinformation around the safety of vaccines, including pushing a totally discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism.
He also has said he would recommend removing fluoride from drinking water. The addition of the material has been cited as leading to improved dental health.
HHS has more than 80,000 employees across the country. It houses the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Medicare and Medicaid programs and the National Institutes of Health.
Kennedy’s anti-vaccine nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.
