Campbell, Kim (1947-…), served as prime minister of Canada in 1993, the first woman ever to hold that office. She became prime minister in June after being elected leader of Canada’s ruling party, the Progressive Conservative Party. Campbell replaced Brian Mulroney, who had resigned. But Campbell served only about four months in office. On Oct. 25, 1993, the Progressive Conservatives finished behind several parties in a general election. Liberal Party leader Jean Chrétien succeeded Campbell as prime minister on Nov. 4, 1993.
Campbell rose quickly in Canadian politics. She began her political career in 1980, when she became a member of the Vancouver school board in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1986, she won a seat in the provincial legislature of British Columbia, the Legislative Assembly. In 1988, she was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in Ottawa, Ontario. There, Campbell rose quickly in Prime Minister Mulroney’s government. Mulroney appointed her attorney general and justice minister of Canada in 1990. In 1993, Campbell was appointed Canada’s minister of national defence and minister of veterans affairs. She was the first woman to hold these Cabinet positions.
In February 1993, Mulroney announced his resignation as prime minister and leader of the Progressive Conservatives. He called a party convention for June to choose his replacement. Campbell won the party leadership. She became prime minister on June 25.
When Campbell became prime minister, Canada’s economy was struggling to recover from a recession that started in 1990. Campbell also faced the challenge of uniting Canada under a revised constitution. The revised constitution had been adopted in 1982, when it was approved by the legislatures of every province except Quebec. Many Quebecers feared the constitution would not provide sufficient protection for Quebec’s French-Canadian society. In 1987 and again in 1992, the Canadian government had agreed on a plan to amend the constitution in an effort to win Quebec’s approval. However, neither proposal was adopted, and Quebec still refused to sign the constitution.
Shortly after Campbell became prime minister, she called for a general election. However, many Canadians disapproved of the Progressive Conservatives. They associated the party with the recession and high rates of unemployment that occurred while it was in power. This disapproval was among the reasons why Campbell’s party lost the general election. In addition, Campbell failed to maintain a coalition (partnership) that Mulroney had built between voters in French-speaking Quebec and conservative western Canada.
Early life
Childhood.
Campbell was born on March 10, 1947, in Port Alberni, British Columbia. She and her older sister, Alix, were the only children of George T. Campbell, a lawyer, and Phyllis (or Lissa) Cook Campbell, a secretary. Kim’s given name was Avril Phaedra Campbell. However, she began using the name Kim when she was 12 years old.
Kim excelled at school and studied music and dancing. She attended high school at Prince of Wales Secondary School in Vancouver, where she was student council president. She also wrote music and poetry, and played the piano and guitar. In 1964, Campbell graduated at the top of her high school class.
Education and entry into political life.
In 1969, Campbell earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of British Columbia. She served as a vice president of the student government at the university. In 1970, after winning a fellowship (grant of money), Campbell studied for a Ph.D. degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1972, during her stay in London, she married Nathan J. Divinsky, a mathematics professor from the University of British Columbia. Campbell moved back to Canada with her husband in 1973, without finishing her Ph.D. program. From 1975 to 1981, she taught political science at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Community College.
In 1980, Campbell was admitted to the University of British Columbia’s law school. That year, she also became a trustee on the Vancouver school board, her first political office. Campbell served as chairman of the school board in 1983. Also that year, she received her law degree and joined the Vancouver law firm of Ladner Downs as a student intern. In 1984, she was admitted to the bar and resigned from the school board. In 1982, she and Divinsky divorced.
Political career
Provincial legislator.
In 1985, Campbell was hired as executive director in the office of William R. Bennett, premier of British Columbia. In 1986, Bennett resigned as premier and as leader of the Social Credit Party, the major conservative party in British Columbia. Campbell campaigned for the party leadership. William N. Vander Zalm won the leadership job and became premier. However, Campbell won a seat in British Columbia’s Legislative Assembly from the riding (district) of Vancouver/Point Grey. She represented the Social Credit Party. In the Legislative Assembly, Campbell chaired the committee that reviewed bills on labor, justice, and intergovernmental relations. She often disagreed with Vander Zalm’s policies, though she and the premier belonged to the same party. Campbell particularly opposed Vander Zalm when he tried to suspend public funds for abortions.
In 1986, Campbell married a second time. Her new husband was Howard Eddy, a lawyer for the attorney general of British Columbia.
Member of Parliament.
In 1988, Campbell ran for a seat in Canada’s House of Commons. She campaigned as a Progressive Conservative candidate from the riding of Vancouver Centre. Campbell won the election over her main opponent, New Democratic Party candidate Johanna den Hertog.
After arriving in Ottawa, Campbell quickly became part of Prime Minister Mulroney’s government. In 1989, Mulroney named her minister of state for Indian affairs and northern development. Campbell also served on a key Cabinet committee that approved all federal appointments and regulations.
In 1990, Mulroney appointed Campbell to be Canada’s first woman minister of justice and attorney general. As justice minister, Campbell guided 26 bills through Parliament. One of these bills was an important piece of gun control legislation. The legislation made buying firearms in Canada more difficult. Another bill that Campbell helped pass into law set guidelines for court cases involving rape. The law limited the presentation of a rape victim’s sexual history in court.
Campbell experienced another marital setback during her first years in Ottawa. In 1991, she and her second husband separated. In 1993, they divorced.
In January 1993, Mulroney appointed Campbell to be Canada’s first woman minister of national defence and minister of veterans affairs. As defence minister, Campbell supported the purchase of EH-101 military helicopters. Campbell also defended the renewal of an agreement that permitted United States cruise missile tests in Canada.
Some of Campbell’s political opponents criticized these policies, arguing that they were inappropriate in a world without the Cold War. The Cold War, an intense rivalry between Communist nations, led by the Soviet Union, and non-Communist nations, including Canada, had recently ended.
Prime minister.
After Mulroney announced his resignation as prime minister and party leader, Campbell immediately became the leading candidate to replace him. However, Jean Charest, Canada’s minister of the environment, became an important challenger. Charest received support from many delegates to the Progressive Conservative Party convention, and he quickly reduced Campbell’s lead in the race. Despite Charest’s challenge, Campbell won the election for head of the party. She was sworn in as prime minister on June 25, 1993.
The 1993 election.
After becoming prime minister, Campbell called a general election for October 1993. In the campaign that followed, Campbell led the Progressive Conservatives against the Liberal Party, led by Jean Chrétien, and the Bloc Quebecois, led by Lucien Bouchard; the Reform Party, led by Preston Manning; and the New Democratic Party, led by Audrey M. McLaughlin. During the campaign, Campbell focused on economic issues. She said she would try to cut Canada’s large budget deficit. Campbell also promised to reduce the size of the government. After becoming prime minister, she appointed 24 ministers to her Cabinet, 10 fewer than in Mulroney’s Cabinet.
Campbell and her party supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The agreement, signed by leaders of Canada, the United States, and Mexico in 1992, would gradually eliminate tariffs (taxes on imports) and other trade barriers among the three countries. But NAFTA required approval of the legislatures of all three countries before it would take effect. Campbell believed that NAFTA, by opening up more markets for Canadian businesses, would create jobs.
Campbell also faced the question of revising the Canadian constitution. The constitutional question had divided the people of Canada since the early 1980’s, when Quebec refused to accept the Constitution Act of 1982. Many Quebecers feared that the act, which made changes in Canada’s constitution, did not adequately protect their province’s French-Canadian character. Prime Minister Mulroney and the 10 provincial premiers had twice agreed on a plan to revise the constitution in an effort to overcome Quebec’s objections. The first plan, called the Meech Lake Accord, failed in 1990 when the legislatures of two provinces refused to approve it. The second attempt, known as the Charlottetown accord, was rejected by Canadian voters in 1992. The failure of these two agreements strengthened the position of Quebec nationalists, who argued that Quebec should declare its independence from Canada.
Canadian voters were unhappy with the economic recession in Canada that had begun in 1990. Many voters associated the Progressive Conservatives with this recession and high rates of unemployment that accompanied it. These factors hurt Campbell’s party. In the 1993 general election, the Progressive Conservatives suffered a stunning defeat. The party, which held 154 seats in the House of Commons before the general election, won only 2 seats in that election. Jean Chrétien replaced Campbell as prime minister. Campbell also lost her seat in the House of Commons. On Dec. 13, 1993, she resigned as leader of the Progressive Conservatives.
Later years.
After the 1993 election, Campbell held several positions at Harvard University. In 1996, she completed Time and Chance, in which she wrote about her time as prime minister. From 1996 to 2000, Campbell served as Canadian consul general in Los Angeles. In 1997, she co-wrote a musical play titled Noah’s Ark with the Canadian composer Hershey Felder, her third husband. Campbell also has held high-level positions in such organizations as the Council of Women World Leaders; the International Women’s Forum; and the Club of Madrid, a group that supports democracy. Her honors include appointment to the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia, and a number of honorary degrees from Canadian and U.S. universities.
