Advance praise for ALEXA!
“From the very first page of Alexa!, we’re given a look into the motivating forces that inspired her life and her work to make people’s lives better. From bringing awareness to the challenges faced by Black people in Africville and overhauling Halifax’s welfare system to her important role in advancing women’s rightful place in Canadian politics, this biography chronicles Alexa’s growing determination to build a better Canada.”
— Jagmeet Singh
“A deeply personal, yet objective, informative, and thought-provoking account of the life of one of Canada’s most inspiring parliamentarians. Alexa McDonough not only changed the face of politics in Canada and her beloved Nova Scotia, but she transformed lives and political processes. Alexa! offers readers a documented legacy of a political leader we could emulate. This book will inspire generations to continue the work she started.”
— Hon. Wanda Thomas Bernard
“Stephen Kimber masterfully recounts the life and times of an important Canadian. Kimber’s gift is to present his subject as a fully rounded person — a woman whose life was full of love and joy as well as grit and vision. I was only vaguely acquainted with Alexa McDonough although I know many who admired her. This wonderful biography makes me wish I had known her better.”
— Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell
“I never had the opportunity to know or to work with Alexa McDonough — but I really wish I had. Her story is a rich piece of Canada’s political story. Her heart, her compassion, and her commitment to politics connected to real people are a profound counterbalance to the prevailing cynicism that threatens the very foundations of democracy. And we need more women’s stories. It was such a pleasure to read the story of this feisty, principled, brilliant woman who persevered through highs and lows, who defied the odds and the men who tried to bring her down, and who always found the light in the moment. Alexa touched the lives of millions of Canadians. I owe her a particular debt of gratitude for blazing a trail for women in leadership. This book is a delightful, important read!”
— Kathleen Wynne
“Alexa McDonough tackled important issues for Canada at a time when even talking about these issues would result in anything from laughter to sneers to threats. I’m thankful that this book is written so that a record of her work exists and won’t be taken for granted. It is a gift to those of us who have followed in her giant footsteps and to those who may be inspired yet to do so. Kimber candidly covers her journey but treats her story with great care. Her humanity shines through.”
— Megan Leslie
“A powerful and beautifully written biography of an important Canadian activist, feminist, and trailblazing politician. Her inspiring story, illustrating Alexa’s genuine motivation to make real change, is what propels women to run for public office. We are so grateful for Rosemary Brown’s advice ‘You Should’ when Alexa was asked to run for office. ‘You Should’ would be my advice to all young women in Canada. Read this book to better understand that when you add women, politics changes for the better.”
— Hon. Carolyn Bennett
“A moving and delightfully descriptive account of Alexa McDonough, who successfully navigated the testosterone-fuelled world of elected office, winning the leadership of both the Nova Scotia NDP and the federal party. As a former political journalist who spent years covering women in politics, I had the opportunity to watch McDonough in action. Kimber’s account is spot on. He sugar-coats nothing, and McDonough, a private person, who was under a spotlight for most of her career, helps him tell the story.”
— Jane Taber
“Stephen Kimber has written a wonderful account of Alexa’s unique contributions to politics: a deep commitment to people, not in the abstract but as real individuals and families facing a struggle; to social justice writ large; and to building a movement in Nova Scotia and across the country. More people will get to know a truly remarkable woman whose intelligence, charm, and humour have worked their way into our hearts.”
— Hon. Bob Rae
Also by STEPHEN KIMBER
Non-Fiction
What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five
IWK: A Century of Caring
Loyalists and Layabouts: The Rapid Rise and Faster Fall of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1783-1792
Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War
NOT GUILTY: The Trial of Gerald Regan
Flight 111: The Tragedy of the Swissair Crash
More Than Just Folks
Net Profits
Fiction
The Sweetness in the Lime
Reparations
STEPHEN KIMBER
ALEXA!
Changing the Face of Canadian Politics
Copyright © 2021 by Stephen Kimber.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). To contact Access Copyright, visit accesscopyright.ca or call 1-800-893-5777.
Edited by Susan Renouf.
Cover and page design by Julie Scriver.
Cover image detailed from NDP Leadership Convention 2003 at Exhibition Place. Former NDP Leader Alexa McDonough waves goodbye after giving her farewell speech. January 23, 2003 Photo by Louie Palu/The Globe and Mail.
Printed in Canada by Friesens.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Alexa! : changing the face of Canadian politics / Stephen Kimber.
Names: Kimber, Stephen, author.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 2020031825X | Canadiana (ebook) 20200318268 | ISBN 9781773101958 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781773101941 (EPUB)
Subjects: LCSH: McDonough, Alexa. | LCSH: Politicians—Canada—Biography. | LCSH: Politicians—Nova Scotia—Biography. | LCSH: Women politicians—Canada—Biography. | LCSH: Women politicians—Nova Scotia—Biography. | CSH: Canada—Politics and government—1993-2006. | CSH: Canada—Politics and government—2006-2015. | CSH: Nova Scotia—Politics and government—1978-1993. | CSH: Nova Scotia—Politics and government—1993-1999.
Classification: LCC FC636.M38 K54 2020 | DDC 971.064/8092—dc23
Goose Lane Editions acknowledges the generous support of the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Government of New Brunswick.
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PROLOGUE
BEFORE
COMING OF AGE IN AN AGE
RUNNING FROM HOUNDS
BELLY OF THE BEAST
NEW BEGINNINGS
THE NATIONAL STAGE
THERE’S LIFE AFTER POLITICS
TRAILBLAZER
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ENDNOTES
INDEX
You should.
I can’t.
What do you mean, you can’t? Of course, you can.
But I’m a social worker.
I was a social worker.
I have two young kids.
I had three young kids.
But if I ran, I’d have to run against my husband’s law partner.
That’s okay. I ran against my husband’s medical partner for my nomination. And I beat him.
But I don’t know enough.
Not good enough.
This conversation happened in Halifax in the spring of 1977. The You–Should in this conversation was Rosemary Brown, a forty-seven-year-old Jamaican-born Canadian then serving as a New Democratic Party (NDP) member of the British Columbia legislature. She was the first Black woman ever elected to any legislature in Canada. Two years earlier, she’d been the first Black woman to run for the leadership of a Canadian federal political party.
That was how she and I–Can’t came to be in Halifax having this conversation.
I–Can’t was Alexa McDonough, a thirty-three-year-old Nova Scotian woman on the last legs of her long, unsuccessful run to escape what writer Harry Bruce in Atlantic Insight magazine would later call her “invisible hound of destiny.” She still seemed more constrained by the sum of all the moving parts of her life — the silver-spoon daughter of the millionaire socialist, the wife of the corporate lawyer, the mother of two young sons, and member in awkward standing among South End Halifax’s conservative elite — than freed by the scope of her personal possibilities. But she was already chafing at the limitations of the traditional values of her place and time, seeking ways to integrate her own evolving feminism and increasing political activism into a future she couldn’t yet imagine for herself.
At her mother’s urging, she’d read The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan’s landmark book that challenged the still-prevailing 1950s presumption that truly “feminine women” preferred domesticity to a life of the mind, or a career, or, certainly, political activism. The book’s influence on the young Alexa was seminal.
After her 1966 marriage to lawyer Peter McDonough, she had found a satisfying career in social work and, while pregnant with her first son, also negotiated with her employer, the City of Halifax, the municipality’s first maternity leave with the guarantee she could return to her old job. And she’d become politically active. After a brief, disillusioning flirtation with the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, she’d returned to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)/NDP politics of her parents.
In 1973, her father, Lloyd Shaw, bought her a plane ticket to attend a conference on democratic socialism at the University of Regina. But it was her mother, Jean, who sagely suggested she share a dorm room with Grace MacInnis, a family friend, the daughter of one of the CCF’s founding fathers and the only woman, among 263 men, elected to the House of Commons in 1968. Alexa McDonough was impressed — and inspired, “exceptionally inspired,” by MacInnis. But she was still a social worker with a husband and two small kids. What was she supposed to do with inspiration?
In 1974, she had served as campaign manager for social activist Muriel Duckworth’s unsuccessful NDP bid for the Nova Scotia legislature and had become the president of her local constituency association. She was selected — along with her mother and father — as a delegate to the 1975 NDP national leadership convention.
The front-runner was Ed Broadbent, a former university professor who’d been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1968. Alexa’s father supported Broadbent, the party establishment’s candidate. Alexa did not. She’d served on the federal party’s participation of women committee with Rosemary Brown, who had helped found the Vancouver Status of Women Council and championed the notion that women’s rights were human rights. “Rosemary emerged as a rock star,” Alexa would recall years later. “She galvanized the women’s movement.”
Once Brown announced her leadership bid, Alexa informed her father she’d be voting for Brown; he wasn’t thrilled. He was less happy when his wife, Jean, declared: “You can support Broadbent, Lloyd. That’s fine, but I’m supporting Rosemary Brown.”
“There was upheaval in my household, the likes of which I don’t remember before or since,” explained Alexa, who noted her mother’s decision to strike out on her own after so many decades of walking in political lockstep with her husband marked a “clenching of the sisterhood between me and my mother.”
Brown came second but closer than expected, taking 40 per cent of the vote. Two years later, she called Alexa, whom she now knew through NDP and various feminist circles as well as through Alexa’s friendship with Brown’s brother, Gus Wedderburn, a respected Halifax social justice advocate. “Can I come and stay with you and Peter?” Brown asked. “I’m just totally exhausted.”
Of course. The McDonoughs had a small basement apartment in their house where she could “hide out.” And, of course, she and Brown talked. And talked. About anything and everything. Including the notion Alexa should run for office herself. Brown parried every Alexa “I can’t” with her own “you should.” McDonough soon ran out of defences. “If you run,” Brown added by way of sweetener, “I will come and speak for you.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Well, not exactly.
I didn’t know Alexa McDonough then, but I’d known of her for a long time. We’re both from Halifax, where you couldn’t help but be aware of the Shaws. Still, we grew up five years and five kilometres apart, unbridgeable divides in that time and place.
In the late 1970s, my wife became close friends with one of Alexa’s best friends, but Alexa and I only met during the 1980 federal election. After finishing third as the federal NDP candidate in Halifax in 1979, she was reprising that role, and its result, in the February 1980 electoral rerun. Today magazine had assigned me to follow her around for a cheeky “losers’ roundup.” The magazine’s lead-in to the article went like this: “As the hopeless losers pick up the pieces, bandage the wounds, and return to the private lives that only saints, crazies, or political animals would have left in the first place, we might remember that to keep the democratic process going, someone has to pay.”1
Given our premise, Alexa was remarkably gracious. She cheerfully acknowledged she didn’t expect to win but hoped to garner at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in the three-way race. Her actual share barely nudged 20 per cent. “It will be a slow process,” she told me without resignation on election night. “But given time and effort, we will win this riding.”
Neither of us would have guessed that it would take seventeen years, or that the NDP candidate who finally won the riding would be Alexa herself, by then the battle-hardened leader of the federal New Democratic Party.
After the 1980 election, Alexa switched to provincial politics, won the no-prize Nova Scotia NDP leadership, and then its lone seat in the legislature. Because the NDP didn’t qualify for public funding to hire staff, she hired me to write freelance press releases and occasional speeches. She impressed me with her intelligence, her determination, and her passionate positivism in the face of daunting reality, which was even more daunting than I knew. I didn’t realize, because she never mentioned it, that she faced unrelenting bullying and harassment from many of her male colleagues in the provincial legislature. Three years later, the NDP won three seats in the legislature (another “slow process”), Alexa finally had public funding to hire staff, and we went our separate ways.
Most of my memories of her between then and when I began working on this biography are fragmentary. A dinner party in the mid-eighties when Alexa’s then husband, Peter, silenced the room by demanding loudly of the flustered hostess: “Are you trying to kill the leader of the NDP?” The hostess had unknowingly served a shellfish appetizer. “Can you imagine the headline?” Peter leaped into the silence with his typical tension-deflating smile. “A Nova Scotia politician with a deathly allergy to seafood?”
Another night in the winter of 1992. I’d gone to Alexa’s house to interview her about something or other, but she seemed in an unusual hurry to shuffle me back out the door. I discovered why when, as I was leaving, John Savage, the mayor of Dartmouth, arrived for a private tête-à-tête. Alexa was trying to woo Savage, a left-leaning Liberal, to run for the NDP. As I later learned from others, she was convinced — or convinced herself, as she often did — he was on the edge of agreeing to join her team. Instead, a few weeks later, Savage announced his own candidacy for the provincial Liberal leadership. And then, a few months before Alexa resigned as provincial NDP leader, she contacted me looking for advice. She’d been offered a job in Africa with the Inter Press Service, a progressive global news agency. Would the job be a good fit? I had no idea. I don’t remember what I advised; I am certain I wouldn’t have suggested she run for federal NDP leader. Which she did soon after.
When I was approached to write her biography in December 2018, I confess I wasn’t sure there was much that wasn’t already known — or that we needed to know. If you were to employ conventional political metrics, it would be simple enough to stick an asterisk at the end of Alexa Ann Shaw McDonough’s name and discreetly move on to other, more significant figures in Canadian political history. After all, she was never a premier or a prime minister. Although she led both the federal and provincial New Democratic Parties, electorally she led them almost exactly nowhere.
But a bald recitation of un-winning numbers misses much of what is most significant about Alexa McDonough and her nearly thirty-year career in Canadian politics. Her more important — most important, in fact — contribution to Canadian political life has not been her electoral successes so much as her seminal role in changing the face of Canadian politics for the better. And for women. In the process, she transcended both her party affiliation and the bias against her gender to become known among Canadians simply as “Alexa,” no last name needed, a beloved, respected, and significant player in Canadian public life.
McDonough deserves much more credit than she has been given for the fact that the then newly minted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could respond to a reporter’s question about why he’d decided to appoint Canada’s first-ever gender-balanced cabinet with an almost flippant, “Because it’s 2015.” It became 2015 in no small measure because of Alexa McDonough.
And yet, that is not the entire story either.
There are many, often contradictory, sometimes confounding, Alexa McDonoughs.
Start with all those elitist stereotypes, beginning with the silver spoon. They are all factually true. But she was also, by upbringing and inclination, acutely aware of and genuinely committed to changing the social inequities that bestowed untold advantages on her while handing less-fortunate others rock-filled backpacks and mountains to climb. She came of age more the dutiful daughter of the fifties than the rebellious child of the sixties. But, during the seventies, she underwent a metamorphic transformation from the young bride who dreamed of nothing more than becoming “Mrs. Peter J.E. McDonough” to the ambitious woman, a steadfast and vocal champion of all manner of feminist causes.
At the same time, she was, and is still, a hopeless romantic, a lover of all manner of men, and a woman loved by many men. But she is also best-friends-forever with concentric circles of women, many of whom she has known since childhood. As a political leader, she could be a driven, demanding, Sharpie-wielding boss but also an understanding, generous friend, sometimes with the same person in the same moment. She could be seriously shocked and appalled but also, often, seriously silly-funny. Though she has lived much of her private life in the open — her marriage, her separation and divorce, her relationships with men, even many of her most intimate health issues — there are some doors, like the one that led to her Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2011, she has kept closed, even to members of her own family.
If you’re going to connect all the disparate dots that make up her life, it’s best to begin with family, to a time before Alexa Ann Shaw McDonough was born when those who would come to shape her life were still being shaped themselves.