Remembering a Flora MacDonald who was full of verve and energy

Long-serving MP was an inspiration to many women, writes Maureen McTeer.

All this week, friends shared their stories about Flora MacDonald, the former federal cabinet minister, international activist and dedicated humanitarian, who died last weekend in Ottawa. While the last few years saw her endure the indignities of age, she met all of them with her characteristic verve and energy. Old age did not suit Flora, but it rarely dominated her.

I first met Flora in 1972 after her election as the Progressive Conservative MP for Kingston and the Islands, the seat held by Canada’s first prime minister. She quickly became known as one of the Red Tories in caucus, a socially progressive MP who fought for equality and inclusiveness for all Canadians. Her political history is well known now, and she handled all her cabinet responsibilities with an energy that would have exhausted anyone unlike her; she could survive on four hours sleep a night and could sleep just about anywhere.

Her telephone calls to cabinet colleagues and friends were legendary, and many a time we were wakened by a call at 4 a.m. from an apologetic PMO telephone operator, advising that “Minister MacDonald must speak with Minister Clark urgently.”

I never heard Flora describe herself as a feminist, as if the term was too narrow for her world view. Of course, she supported women’s equality — indeed she embodied it — and my generation of young women saw her, and the other women parliamentarians she worked closely with, as our role models.

I asked her once what women of my lucky generation could do to ensure all her work, and that of other political women leaders, was carried on. Her response was blunt. “Just be sure,” she said, “that the fate of women never again rests on one woman’s shoulders.” A fitting comment and an important lesson I have always taken to heart.

Of all the changes Flora helped achieve, certainly the most significant for Canadian women was section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees substantive as well as procedural equality to women and gives Parliament the power to correct past discriminations. For Flora, the Charter and its commitment to human rights was essential.

Fighting for justice and fairness was her vocation. She would work for the rights of every person who had been denied them, whether in small-town Canada or in war zones around our troubled world.

I know she was upset with the way the current government persisted in undermining the institutions and principles of democracy at home, and how it forfeited Canada’s hard-earned influence and reputation internationally. But this failure seemed to make her more active, working for human rights, women’s education and elder care (to name but three) that dominated her years after politics. She believed firmly that the individual could and must make a difference, and she spent her life doing just that.

Other friends of Flora’s will share their stories in the days ahead. From treks along the old Silk Road to climbing Mount Everest; from sleeping in mud huts with families in Afghanistan to being lost after dark in Cairo. From flying through a violent storm in a small plane through the Rockies (I was with her, and she never flinched once), to just telling us of life in her beloved Cape Breton, Flora lived as if each day were her last. This alone is a worthy legacy. She will be remembered and celebrated for it.

Of all the changes Flora helped achieve, certainly the most significant for Canadian women was section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees substantive as well as procedural equality to women.