Audrey McLaughlin

Audrey Marlene McLaughlin, OC PC (born November 8, 1936; née Brown) was leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1989 to 1995. She was the first female leader of a political party with representation in the Canadian House of Commons, as well as the first female federal political party leader to represent an electoral district in a Canadian territory.

McLaughlin was born as Audrey Marlene Brown in Dutton, Ontario, the daughter of Margaret Clark and William Brown, of Scottish and English descent. She worked as a social worker in Toronto, Ontario and in Ghana. In 1955, she graduated with a Diploma in Home Science from the MacDonald Institute (later a founding college of the University of Guelph ). In 1979, McLaughlin moved to Yukon and set up a consultancy business. In 1987, she ran in a by-election and won, the first federal NDP candidate to win in Yukon. In 1988, she was appointed caucus chair, and in 1989, she won the NDP 1989 leadership convention, replacing the retiring Ed Broadbent.

McLaughlin had taken over the NDP during one of its peaks. However, the party began a steady decline in the polls for several reasons. One was the NDP's provincial affiliates in British Columbia and Ontario, whose unpopularity in government reflected badly on the federal party. The rise of the Reform Party also sapped much NDP support in Western Canada. In the 1993 election, the NDP lost badly, and was left with only nine seats in Parliament. McLaughlin won her seat in the Yukon, but resigned as leader in 1995, and was succeeded by Alexa McDonough. McLaughlin did not run for re-election in the 1997 election.

McLaughlin was an overseas volunteer in Barbados in 1986 with Canadian Crossroads International. Today she is an honorary patron with Crossroads.

In 1991, she was sworn in as a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada so that she could access classified documents during the Gulf War. In August 2003, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

She published an autobiography, A Woman's Place: My Life and Politics, in 1992.

She has a daughter (Tracy), two grandchildren (Kelly and Derek), and two great-grandchildren (Kagan and Danielle).

Post-political career

In 2000, she joined the National Democratic Institute, an organization that promotes democracy and peace in developing nations and travelled to Kosovo to help women there to run in the country's first democratic election. McLaughlin has also served as the President of the Socialist International Women and as special representative for the Government of the Yukon on Circumpolar Affairs. She was an honorary pallbearer at the state funeral of Jack Layton in 2011.