Flora MacDonald worked for the national Progressive Conservative Party before being elected to Parliament in 1972. She served for 16 years, during which time she held several Cabinet posts in the Clark and Mulroney governments, including Secretary of State for External Affairs. Since her departure from politics, Flora been active with a number of humanitarian bodies. She is the founder of Future Generations Canada, which is dedicated to rebuilding civil society in Afghanistan – in support of which she had made a dozen trips to that country. She remains active with her charitable activities at 88.
I first got to know Flora around the mid-1960s, when I was a student at Queen’s University and she was a senior support staff person in the Political Science Department. I followed her career thereafter, well before she became famous for her unsuccessful run for the leadership of the federal Conservative Party in 1976 and then for her role as one of the key figures behind the scenes for Canada during the Iranian hostage incident at the end of the 1970s. I remember when she parted company with John Diefenbaker, in whose Ottawa office she had worked, and went on to help Robert Stanfield win the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1967. Diefenbaker wasn’t happy about her disloyalty and was always ready with a riposte. He is said to have offered Flora a very back-handed compliment about being “one of the finest women ever to walk the streets of Ottawa.” In my recent book, Reviving Canadian Democracy, I discussed the denigration of politicians and argued that, in my view, most were decent, dedicated, and honourable people. I provided brief profiles of four MPs in support of my case, and one of them was Flora, as reproduced below.
Flora MacDonald worked for the national Progressive Conservative Party before being elected to Parliament in 1972. She served for 16 years, during which time she held several Cabinet posts in the Clark and Mulroney governments, including Secretary of State for External Affairs. Since her departure from politics, Flora been active with a number of humanitarian bodies. She is the founder of Future Generations Canada, which is dedicated to rebuilding civil society in Afghanistan – in support of which she had made a dozen trips to that country. She remains active with her charitable activities at 88.
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AuthorC. Richard Tindal, Ph.D is a retired Professor of Government. He taught for 30 years at St. Lawrence College, Kingston and was an occasional Visiting Professor at Queen's University. He has also written and consulted extensively about government. Archives
October 2023
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