Pat Carney

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The Honourable
Pat Carney
PC CM
President of the Treasury Board
In office
March 31, 1988 – December 7, 1988
Prime MinisterBrian Mulroney
Preceded byDon Mazankowski
Succeeded byDoug Lewis (acting)
Minister for International Trade
In office
June 30, 1986 – March 30, 1988
Prime MinisterBrian Mulroney
Preceded byJames Kelleher
Succeeded byJohn Crosbie
Minister of Energy, Mines, and Resources
In office
September 17, 1984 – June 29, 1986
Prime MinisterBrian Mulroney
Preceded byGerald Regan
Succeeded byMarcel Masse
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of Parliament
for Vancouver Centre
In office
April 14, 1980 – October 1, 1988
Preceded byArt Phillips
Succeeded byKim Campbell
Canadian Senator
from British Columbia
In office
August 30, 1990 – January 31, 2008
Nominated byBrian Mulroney
Appointed byRay Hnatyshyn
Preceded byNancy Bell (1989)
Personal details
Born
Patricia Dora Carney

(1935-05-26)May 26, 1935
Shanghai, China
DiedJuly 25, 2023(2023-07-25) (aged 88)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Political partyConservative (2003–2023)
Other political
affiliations		Progressive Conservative (1979–2003)
ProfessionPolitician
CommitteesChair, Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources (1994–1996)

Patricia Dora Carney[1] PC CM (May 26, 1935 – July 25, 2023) was a Canadian politician who served as a member of parliament from 1980 to 1988 and as a Senator from 1990 to 2008.

A member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, she first ran for the House of Commons of Canada during the 1979 Canadian federal election, but was defeated. She ran again in the election the following year and won, representing the district of Vancouver Centre. After winning a second term in the 1984 elections, she held three cabinet positions under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney: minister of Energy, Mines and Resources from 1984 to 1986, minister of International Trade from 1986 to 1988 and President of the Treasury Board for eight months in 1988. She was the first woman named to each of these three major economic cabinet positions.[2] She did not seek a third term during the next federal election in 1988, and was succeeded by future prime minister Kim Campbell. In 1990, Mulroney appointed her to the Senate, where she served until her resignation in 2008.

Early life[edit]

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.[3][4][5]

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.[6] 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 Jim 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.[7]

Political career[edit]

Member of Parliament[edit]

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[edit]

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.[2]

In 1986, she was named Minister of International Trade and, as such, was involved in negotiating the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.[2]

Carney did not run for re-election in the 1988 election due to continuing pain from arthritis.[2]

Senator[edit]

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.[8] In 2000 Carney acted on concerns that landmark lighthouses on both Canadian coasts were being neglected by teaming up with 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.[9]

Later in 1997, Carney suggested that British Columbia might benefit from separating from Canada.[10]

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.[11] 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."[12]

Archives[edit]

There are Patricia Carney fonds at Library and Archives Canada[13] and the University of British Columbia.[14]

Death[edit]

Carney died on July 25, 2023, at the age of 88.[15]

Electoral history[edit]

1984 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Pat Carney 21,704 43.23 +7.96
New Democratic Johanna den Hertog 16,283 32.43 +0.66
Liberal Paul E. Manning 10,654 21.22 -10.20
Green Paul Watson 533 1.06 +0.95
Rhinoceros Danny Tripper Parro 487 0.97 +0.25
Libertarian Paul A. Geddes 316 0.63 –
Communist Maurice Rush 135 0.27 -0.16
Confederation of Regions Poldi Meindl 98 0.20 –
Total valid votes 50,210 100.0  
Progressive Conservative hold Swing +3.65
1980 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Pat Carney 16,462 35.27 +0.84
New Democratic Ron Johnson 14,830 31.77 +1.80
Liberal Art Phillips 14,667 31.42 -3.22
Rhinoceros David J. Longworth 337 0.72 –
Communist Jack Phillips 200 0.43 +0.18
Independent John Elliot 101 0.22 -0.38
Independent Paul Watson 54 0.12 –
Marxist–Leninist Greg Corcoran 24 0.05 -0.06
Total valid votes 46,675 100.0  
Progressive Conservative gain from Liberal Swing -0.48


1979 Canadian federal election: Vancouver Centre
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Art Phillips 15,430 34.64 -7.09
Progressive Conservative Pat Carney 15,335 34.43 -3.10
New Democratic Ron Johnson 13,350 29.97 +10.58
Independent John Elliot 267 0.60 –
Communist Bert Ogden 111 0.25 -0.22
Marxist–Leninist Greg Corcoran 48 0.11 -0.20
Total valid votes 44,541 100.0  
Liberal hold Swing -2.00

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Patricia CARNEY". Obituaries. Vancouver Sun. August 19, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Mickleburgh, Rod (August 12, 2023). "Progressive Conservative politician Pat Carney helped keep abortion out of the Criminal Code". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 23, 2024.
  3. ^ The International Who's Who, 1997-98. Europa Publications. 1997. p. 252. ISBN 9781857430226.
  4. ^ Saturday Night, Volume 100, Issues 1-6. Consolidated Press Limited. 1985. p. 40.
  5. ^ Pierre G. Normandin (1991). The Canadian Parliamentary Guide. Gale Canada. p. 103.
  6. ^ Carney, Pat (1971). Tiara & Atigi: Northwest Territories 1970 Centennial, The Royal Tour. Mitchell Press Limited. ASIN B0006C6B50.
  7. ^ Wake, Val (2008). White Bird Black Bird. Booksurge Publishing. ISBN 978-1-43920345-3.
  8. ^ Carney, Pat (July 7, 2022). "Canada once nearly passed a restrictive abortion law. This is how it failed". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  9. ^ "Heritage Canada Foundation Welcomes Passing of Heritage Lighthouse Bill". Heritage Canada Foundation. 2008. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  10. ^ Chretien chides feuding region, Tampa Bay Times, October 5, 1997
  11. ^ "Mulroney-era Conservative announces her retirement". Canadian Press. October 12, 2007. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  12. ^ "Appointments to the Order of Canada". June 30, 2011.
  13. ^ "Finding aid to Patricia Carney fonds, Library and Archives Canada" (PDF). Retrieved August 31, 2020.
  14. ^ "Finding aid to Patricia Carney fonds, University of British Columbia" (PDF). Retrieved August 31, 2020.
  15. ^ "Former senator, MP, journalist Pat Carney is dead at the age of 88". CTV News. July 26, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2023.

External links[edit]

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