The rise of Kim Campbell in Federal Canadian
politics was relatively fast as was her ultimate
demise. Canada's 19th Prime Minister was also
it's first female PM. Campbell was born
Avril Phaedra
Douglas Campbell on March 10th, 1947 in
Port Alberni, British Columbia. Her family moved
to Vancouver soon after she was born and at age
12 her mother left her home and she decided that
Avril would not continue to be her name and from
there on in she would be called Kim. She
attended Prince of Wales High School where she
was elected the first ever female class
President which was not t be the first male only
barrier she would bring down
She
attended the University of British Columbia
where she earned her BA in 1969 in Political
Science. She then went to the London School of
Economics where she worked on her PhD in Soviet
Studies. She left early when she decided to
marry and move back to Vancouver in 1972 and
began teaching at UBC and Vancouver Community
College. By 1980 she was back at UBC as a
student studying for her Law Degree.
Her interest in politics began to take on
more of a utilitarian shade when she decided to
run for the school board in Vancouver and served
in that position from 1980 to 1984. Her first
taste of the political life had stimulated her
ambition and her next step was into provincial
politics when she ran as a Social Credit
candidate in 1984. She lost but became a policy
advisor to Premier Bill Bennett and in 1987 she
ran for the Socreds again and won. Once in the
Provincial Legislature she unabashedly opposed
the Premier's position on abortion by supporting
more access for women to abortion services.
Seeing no long term future in provincial
politics she switched to the Progressive
Conservatives and ran in the 1988 Federal
election and won in Vancouver Centre. Prime
Minister Mulroney brought her into the Cabinet
in 1989 when she was made Minister of State for
Indian Affairs and Northern Development. She
worked hard in that ministry and was rewarded in
1990 when she was promoted to Minister of
Justice and Attorney General. Facing stiff
opposition from members of her own party she
brought in tougher control of guns, and then
took on the issue of sexual assault by
reaffirming the rights of the victims.
In 1993 as an election drew near, she was
moved to the Department of Defence and had to
deal with the controversial questions of buying
new helicopters for the military. She also had
to deal with actions by Canadian Airborne units
in Somalia which while on peacekeeping duties
had tortured and killed some Somalis.
By 1993 the Progressive Conservatives and
Brian Mulroney had fallen to very low levels in
the polls and Mulroney realizing that he could
not possibly win another mandate, decided to
step down. Many in the party were looking for an
edge in their next leader which might help
resuscitate their fortunes and help win the
election. Campbell was viewed as a dynamic,
charismatic leader who might recreate the
momentum of Trudeaumania and capture the nations
support as the first female Prime Minister.
She defeated Jean Charest, a long-time
Conservative stalwart and highly respected
member of the cabinet, in the leadership race
and on June 25, 1993, she became Canada's first
female Prime Minister. She was well aware of the
fate of John Turner a decade before when he
rushed into an election with only a slim initial
lead in the polls. She took some very popular
actions to start with, such as cutting the
number of Cabinet Ministers from 35 to 23,
attending the G7 summit in Tokyo and
touring the country in July and August. The
polls showed her climbing above 51% approval
which was extremely high for a Canadian Prime
Minister. The Conservative gamble of going with
the relatively inexperienced candidate with the
momentum seemed to be paying off. By September
she was well ahead of the Liberal leader Jean
Chretien and had absorbed much of the support of
the Reform Party. She decide to call an election
for the fall and the writ was dropped an the
race was on.
Her lead in the polls almost immediately
began to fall and due to inexperience and an
uncoordinated Conservative campaign strategy. As
the campaign unfolded, the voters were reminded
of the unpopular Mulroney, to which the
Conservatives, realizing that Campbell was more
popular then Chretien, unleashed attack ads
against the Liberal leader. One in particular
seemed to mock Chretien's speech impediment and
the reaction nationwide was highly critical of
Campbell and the Conservatives. The election was
lost and the best that could be hoped for was a
decent number of MP's to form the opposition.
As the results began to come in on election
night, the vote for the Liberals became a
landslide. The final results were Liberals - 177
seats, Bloc = 54 seats, Reform Party 52 seats, NDP 9 seats, Progressive Conservatives 2 seats
and others - 1.
Several dynamics took hold during the
election including the separation of French
Canadian nationalist support from the
Conservatives with the Bloc benefitting. The
weakness of the NDP also helped boost the
Liberal numbers as they consolidated the centre
and left vote. The resurgence of reform during
the election also hurt the Conservatives in the
west. Campbell even lost her seat in Vancouver
Centre to the Liberals.
Campbell resigned shortly after the election
and Jean Charest took over as leader of the 2
seat Conservatives. Kim Campbell returned to
teaching Political Science at Harvard
University. In 1996 she was appointed as Consul
General in Los Angeles, a post which she held
until 2000. She has remained very active in many
areas but has taken particular pride in her work
for the advance of women's opportunities in many
different arenas.
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