Pat Carney

Patricia "Pat" Carney, PC CM (born May 26, 1935) is a former Canadian Senator and Cabinet minister.

For the Black Keys drummer, see Patrick Carney. For the baseball player, see Pat Carney (baseball).

The Honourable

Pat Carney

PC CM
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Vancouver Centre
In office
1980–1988
Preceded byArt Phillips
Succeeded byKim Campbell
Senator for British Columbia
In office
1990–2008
Personal details
Born
Patricia Carney

(1935-05-26) May 26, 1935
Shanghai, China
Political partyProgressive Conservative
Conservative
CabinetPresident of the Treasury Board (1988)
Minister for International Trade (1986–1988)
Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources (1984–1986)
CommitteesChair, Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources (1994–1996)

Early life

Carney was born in Shanghai, China, the daughter of Dora May Sanders and John James Carney, a Canadian who worked as a policeman in Shanghai.[1][2][3]

During the early part of her working life Pat Carney ran her own socio-economic consulting business in Yellowknife, NWT. Trading under the name of Gemini North, Ltd., Pat Carney developed useful contacts in the NWT Government and the oil and gas industry. Following the 1970 Centennial Royal Tour of the NWT Pat Carney, at the invitation of the NWT Commissioner, Stuart Hodgson, produced a book about the tour.[4] Carney became a close friend of Stuart Hodgson and accompanied the Commissioner and his party in the 1971 Canadian North Pole expedition an aborted attempt to reach the Pole by Twin Otter in a bid to establish the route for tourist adventurers. Carney was accompanied by her twin brother from Montreal during the flight in and out of the Polar Basin.

Carney's contacts with the oil and gas industry resulted in her being commissioned to conduct a survey of local opinion about the installation of a gas pipeline along the Mackenzie River Valley. Carney organised an information tour of the valley with stops at all the river settlements where the fly-in pipeliners conducted workshops explaining to the local people details about the pipeline project. The pipeliner's tour was shadowed by the president of the Northwest Territories Indian Brotherhood president James Wah-shee and was seen in native rights circles as a demonstration of the Brotherhood's aim to be consulted before any pipeline work started. Shortly after this tour the Brotherhood applied for a development caveat to stop all development on treaty land. This caveat eventually led to the pipeline inquiry which resulted in the project being shelved.

A fictionalized account of these events was published in 2008.[5]

Political career

MP

Carney first ran for the House of Commons of Canada 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.

Cabinet minister

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.

Senator

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 in a tie vote. In 2000 Carney acted on concerns that landmark lighthouses on both Canadian coasts were being neglected by teaming up with the late Senator Mike Forrestall from Nova Scotia to introduce the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act, a private members bill which enjoyed consistent multi-party support in subsequent minority Parliaments and which received royal assent in 2008.[6]

More recently Carney mused that the Province of British Columbia might benefit from separating from Canada.

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.[7] She officially resigned on January 31, 2008. In 2011, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada "for her public service as a journalist, politician and senator."[8]

Archives

There are Patricia Carney fonds at Library and Archives Canada[9] and the University of British Columbia.[10]

References
  1. The International Who's Who, 1997-98. Europa Publications. 1997. p. 252. ISBN 9781857430226.
  2. Saturday Night, Volume 100, Issues 1-6. Consolidated Press Limited. 1985. p. 40.
  3. Pierre G. Normandin (1991). The Canadian Parliamentary Guide. Gale Canada. p. 103.
  4. Carney, Pat (1971). Tiara & Atigi: Northwest Territories 1970 Centennial, The Royal Tour. Mitchell Press Limited. ASIN B0006C6B50.
  5. Wake, Val (2008). White Bird Black Bird. Booksurge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-43920345-3.
  6. "Heritage Canada Foundation Welcomes Passing of Heritage Lighthouse Bill". Heritage Canada Foundation. 2008.
  7. "Mulroney-era Conservative announces her retirement". Canadian Press. October 12, 2007. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  8. "Appointments to the Order of Canada". June 30, 2011.
  9. "Finding aid to Patricia Carney fonds, Library and Archives Canada" (PDF). Retrieved August 31, 2020.
  10. "Finding aid to Patricia Carney fonds, University of British Columbia" (PDF). Retrieved August 31, 2020.
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