Dear Reader,

My heart is particularly heavy this week, heavy with loss and regret. Three days ago, I lost a dear mentor and I regret I never told her how important she was to me. I speak, of course, of Alexa.

Even without her last name, I know you know who I’m talking about. One-name recognition is typically reserved for only the brightest stars and in the firmament of Canadian politics, Alexa McDonough was a supernova.

Her’s was a career of blazing firsts: first woman to lead a major political party, heading up the Nova Scotia NDP from 1980 to 1994; first woman to lead a national political party (she led the New Democratic Party of Canada from 1995 to 2003).

In a CBC.ca article published on January 15, she was remembered for her battles against old school politics, nepotism, social injustice, patronage, sexism and misogyny. Current NDP leader Jagmeet Singh picked up that theme on Twitter, posting that she “never backed down from a challenge.”

It was because of her and where she stood that I (an earlier version of myself at least) could realistically envision a place for myself in national politics. And because of her, I didn’t want to just be a politician… no, I aspired to be an active participant in Canadian nation building.

Alexa, was, after all, a visionary. A woman of goals and ideals and I dared to dream I could walk in her footsteps, if not her party ideology. And while I ultimately didn’t follow that path, it wasn’t because I didn’t believe it was possible—she had showed me it was. I simply chose not to (a four-year stint at the municipal level showed me that I really didn’t want a public life).

I wish I had some heartfelt personal memories of Alexa to share with you, but the truth is… I never met her. The closest I will come to knowing her is reading her authorized biography, written by my colleague, Stephen Kimber. (Click here for an excerpt of Alexa!: Changing the Face of Canadian Politics)

But even without meeting her, without having had the opportunity to challenge her or debate her ideas and decisions, I was/am still inspired by her. And isn’t that a most remarkable legacy.

 

Dawn Chafe Executive editor & co-owner dchafe@atlanticbusinessmagazine.ca