ACTION — ON HER OWN TERMS
Liberal MP on authenticity, Ottawa Centre, and shaping climate policy from outside in
Catherine McKenna has been many things to many people in her seven years in the spotlight that is electoral politics at the highest level in Canada.
Some were objective truths: The country's second-longest-serving environment minister, then the member of cabinet charged with managing a massive infrastructure portfolio, as well as the two-term Liberal member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre.
But McKenna was a symbol, as well as a politician, and what she represented depended on who you are. She was the face of government climate policy that put a price on carbon, a move many Canadians embraced but others vehemently opposed.
She was a target of the hate and misogyny causing increasing alarm in politics today, as well as its fierce opponent, who strongly condemned the way public figures, especially women, are treated.
There's also the day-to-day shaping of a political persona, and personhood, that comes with running for and maintaining elected office, and being a woman in the world.
McKenna remembers being told she ran like a girl — “the ultimate insult” — at age 10, by a boy aggravated by her abilities on the soccer field. It stayed lodged in her brain, pushing her to join the same clubs the boys did, and put on power suits and a “super hardcore” attitude at law school. It wasn't until her early 40s, with kids of her own, that something shifted.
“I was exhausted and I was just like, forget it, I'm done. I'm just going to do things my own way,” said McKenna, in an interview with the Citizen on Monday.
One sees that attitude, looking back at her ultimately successful battle to break through as a political rookie and take Ottawa Centre from popular NDP incumbent Paul Dewar. Some weren't pleased with McKenna's decision to challenge Dewar, but after her win she said it never made sense to her to run elsewhere.
“It was important for me to run here, where I am from.”
She also believes Canadians embrace authenticity in their politicians when they see it, and pointed to her own experiences calling out a Conservative MP as well as the Rebel Media organization for calling her “Climate Barbie.”
She spent a long time biting her tongue in the face of such comments. “The advice was — don't engage, because you'll look weak or they'll double down,” she said. “And it was a split-second decision, and they were both mine. … Everyone else would have advised against it.”
The result? Canadians stood behind her, McKenna said. “That's the only thing I wish I'd learned earlier, that you don't have to be some perfect politician with no edges.”
But staying true to oneself is easier said than done in the political arena. Even when it came to her decision to decline to run for re-election, and focus instead on spending time with her three children and pursue climate action from outside government, other people had opinions, McKenna said.
“Lots of people are like, `I'm really sad. You should have stayed.' Or, `Why didn't you stay, if you really cared.'”
McKenna said she's going out of politics as she came in: “On my own terms. … To do what I think is really important.”
Meanwhile, she's not out of the game entirely. She'll be helping out Ottawa Centre's new federal Liberal candidate (and former Liberal MPP) Yasir Naqvi with his campaign, as well as others on the Liberal slate.
She's got some ideas on climate policy, and what more can be done to reduce emissions, that she'll be sharing at the national level. “Hopefully the campaign will listen to me, they tend to listen to me, a bit,” she quipped.
She also shared her perspective on some local issues that Ottawans might be thinking about in the weeks to come, while making it clear these are personal positions — the new Ottawa Centre candidate will have his own.
McKenna supports the planned location of the new Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital near Dow 's Lake, which is still problematic for some. “Are there changes that might be able to be made? Of course, and that's why there's consultations. But I think relitigating the site is not the way to go,” she said.
As for the appointment of a local politician to the cabinet post responsible for the National Capital Commission — which hasn't happened since Justin Trudeau became prime minister — McKenna said she thinks it may help.
“The reality is, who cares more about the national capital than the people who live here?”
Looking back on her tenure in elected office, McKenna pointed to her work on climate change as the accomplishment she was most proud of. At the local level, it was working with residents of her riding — from collaboration to resettle Syrian refugees, to solving challenges individual constituents faced, to rolling out new launch docks for access to the Rideau Canal.
“I'm just proud of the work that we did as a community because I actually felt this real kinship with Ottawa Centre,” McKenna said. “And I felt that people had my back.”