Yukon's Audrey McLaughlin looks back, 35 years after becoming 1st female leader of major federal party

Stick to your principles.

That's the advice Audrey McLaughlin, the former Yukon MP and leader of the federal NDP, might give to any of her successors in the House of Commons today. 

"You know, people used to say to me, 'well, you know, when you go into politics, you have to give up your principles,'" McLaughlin recalled this week, on the 35th anniversary of her election as the first woman to lead a major federal party in Canada. 

"I never felt that way, ever. Like, I never felt that I was somehow compromising something I believed in."

McLaughlin is originally from Ontario and moved to the Yukon in 1979. When she was elected as the territory's MP in 1987, she was the first NDP member to represent the Yukon. Two years after that, in December 1989, she won her party's leadership convention to succeed Ed Broadbent as NDP leader. 

The party fared poorly in the 1993 federal election however, when Jean Chretien's Liberals ousted Kim Campbell's Progressive Conservatives to form a new majority government, and the NDP also lost dozens of seats. McLaughlin resigned as NDP leader in 1995 and opted not to run in the 1997 election.  

McLaughlin spoke to the CBC's Cheryl Kawaja this week, about her career in politics, and how she worked to see more women elected to Parliament. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What do you make of the fact that woman are still a minority, when it comes to politics and leadership?

In some respects it has changed. I think the recent British Columbia election, a lot of women were elected. There is a greater receptivity to women running because they often win. You know, women used to be offered, you know, 'what losing seat would you like to run in?' And I think a little bit of that has changed, but I don't think it's changed radically. And in some ways I see it going backwards as opposed to forwards, but maybe that's in my less optimistic moments.

And, you know, I certainly support seeing more women elected, but I'm also aware that women are not homogeneous. We don't all have the same views. We're not all of the same point of view. So I'm not interested in supporting women who have diabolically opposed views to what I would have. So it's a bit of a balance. I think it matters what your principles are, your philosophies, and what your political party stands for.

When you look back at your time in the House as a leader, what stands out? What comes to mind when you reminisce about those years?

Well, they were very good years in many ways. You know, we were dealing with the Constitution, and whenever anybody mentions that, it throws a wrench in everything because whatever you were going to do is taken over by that.

But as I look back on the years, I feel very positive about it. I think that I had wonderful colleagues, really wonderful
colleagues. Also, I think politics was different then. There was a fairly collegial feeling in the House of Commons. Parties talked to each other and there was a sense that we could work together. We could disagree. I see that that has changed.

There's always some negatives. I mean, that would be silly to say, "Oh, it was all lovely." Of course it wasn't all lovely. You know, there were ups and downs. There certainly was an overlay of sexism. I think there's no question of that. There would be comments on what I wore.

I made a real attempt when I was the leader to ensure that more women were elected, and we had a special policy on getting more women elected. Not everyone in the party liked it, that's for sure, but the majority did.

You represented the Yukon, and we've had MPs of every political stripe in the last 40 years. Were there any moments in your time in Ottawa where you felt Yukon was really on the map?

My observation at the moment — and in many ways it was true then too — the North is not really considered seriously, I think in a lot of areas. And I use "the North" broadly, in remote areas in Canada and so on.

The latest issue that I must say really incenses me is the way we have ignored the people in remote communities around the price of food. I mean, it's unconscionable. And you know, people are talking about a GST holiday, well those folks don't have any holiday. Maybe we should be looking at them. But of course there aren't many votes there.

I find that really disturbing in that, in my view, part of the reason that many issues in the North get overlooked is there's just not very many votes. There's, well, four MPs I guess, and it seems to be, you know, where the votes are.

What are you most proud of, in your time as leader?

Well, I am proud that we stood up against going into the war in Iraq — which subsequently proved correct. I'm not saying we knew it was correct at the time, but it it seemed that it was the right thing not to do.

I did a lot of international work after I retired and spent some considerable time in Iraq, actually. And it was interesting because when I first went some of the people, Iraqis, would say, 'well, you're from Canada and you didn't help us.' And then as time went on, it totally reversed. And because we were from Canada, we were more admired than others.

I'm very proud of the fact that while I was in Parliament I was able to facilitate the land claims going through, and that was it a bit of a challenge, but it happened. So that was great.

And as I often remind people, we're probably one of the few countries in the world where we formed a new territory, with a new legislature and government — Nunavut, obviously — without a war, without great conflict, and we should be very proud of that. That is not happening around the world, obviously not today.

So I think there were a number of things that I'm very happy about. I'm very happy that as a party we really attempted to structurally, not just by dialogue and saying nice things, to get more women elected. Now we're talking about more New Democratic women, of course, but I'm very proud of that, that we put in a system that facilitated that. And I like to think that has carried over in time. I hope that it was a contribution to the country.