Pat Carney
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- For the Black Keys drummer, see Patrick Carney.
Patricia "Pat" Carney, PC, (born May 26, 1935 in Shanghai, China) is a former Canadian Senator and Cabinet minister.
Carney first ran for the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 1979 election and was defeated. She was elected in the 1980 election as the Member of Parliament (MP) from Vancouver Centre.
When the Tories formed government under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as a result of the 1984 election, Carney was appointed to Cabinet as Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, and was responsible for dismantling the previous Canadian government's unpopular National Energy Program.
In 1986, she was named Minister of International Trade and, as such, was involved in negotiating the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.
Carney did not run for re-election in the 1988 election. In 1990, she was appointed to the Canadian Senate by Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn. Carney, a pro-choice advocate of women's rights to abortion, voted against the abortion law proposed by her successor as MP for Vancouver Centre, Kim Campbell. The bill failed in the Senate by one vote. In 2000 Carney acted on concerns that landmark lighthouses on both Canadian coast were being neglected by teaming up with the late Senator Mike Forrestall from Nova Scotia to introduce An Act to Protect Heritage Lighthouses, a private members bill which has enjoyed consistent multi-party support in subsequent minority Parliaments.[1]
More recently Carney mused that the Province of British Columbia might benefit from separating from Canada.
Carney became a Conservative Senator in 2004 following the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance.
On October 11, 2007, the Prime Minister's Office announced that Senator Carney intended to resign, two years in advance of the mandatory retirement age of 75 years.[2] She officially resigned on January 31, 2008.
[edit] References
- ^ 'Lighthouse Bill Protecting Our Lighthouses - The Icons of Canada's Maritime Heritage' Canadian Heritage Foundation Featured Heritage Buildings by Douglas Franklin http://www.heritagecanada.org/eng/featured/current.html
- ^ Mulroney-era Conservative retiring from Senate. CBC. Retrieved on 2007-10-11.
[edit] External links
| Parliament of Canada | ||
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| Preceded by Art Phillips |
Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre 1980-1988 |
Succeeded by Kim Campbell |
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