NDP leader Alexa McDonough smiles during an interview in her office on Parliament Hill, on Dec. 14, 2000.DAVE CHAN/The Globe and Mail
The death of former NDP leader Alexa McDonough felt like a sad full-circle moment for Monia Mazigh.
Ms. Mazigh was visiting her home country of Tunisia last weekend when she learned Ms. McDonough had died. The news took her back to 2002, when she was visiting Tunis and received a cold call from Ms. McDonough, then NDP leader, offering support weeks after the sudden disappearance of her husband, Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar.
That phone call sparked a long friendship that would see Ms. McDonough become one of Ms. Mazigh’s biggest advocates in the fight to reunite Mr. Arar with his family and seek justice for his wrongful rendition, torture and imprisonment in Syria. For Ms. Mazigh, Ms. McDonough’s outreach – a year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when anti-Muslim sentiment was on the rise – exemplified who she was: a courageous politician who sought equity, justice and human rights for all.
“I told her many times, ‘Alexa, God sent you to me,’” Ms. Mazigh said. “I was confused, alone. I was somehow a pariah. Nobody wanted to approach or get close to me because of the case, because of the war on terror.”
During a trip home to Canada through New York in September, 2002, Mr. Arar was detained then deported to Syria on unfounded suspicions of terrorist ties. Canadian security agencies had wrongly red-flagged him as a possible terrorist in intelligence exchanges with the United States. He was imprisoned and brutally tortured for more than 10 months in a Syrian prison.
Ms. McDonough was the first member of Parliament to raise Mr. Arar’s disappearance in the House of Commons in 2002 and put pressure on the Liberal government to seek his return home to his wife and two young children. Ms. Mazigh said the NDP leader was a “pillar” in the push for her husband’s release and the eventual inquiry that led to his $10.5-million government settlement.
In 2004, Ms. McDonough encouraged Ms. Mazigh to run for the federal NDP in Ottawa. Although Ms. Mazigh didn’t win the election, she and her family remained close with Ms. McDonough, even in the final months of her life.
After a lengthy struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, Ms. McDonough died on Jan. 15 at her long-term care home in Halifax. She was 77. She leaves her sons, Justin and Travis McDonough; her brother, Robbie; and seven grandchildren.
Ms. McDonough became one of the first women to lead a major political party in Canada when she was elected leader of the Nova Scotia NDP in 1980. She went on to lead the federal New Democrats, advocating for gender equity, strong social programs and a more compassionate government. She was known as a trailblazer for women in politics, constantly challenging institutional sexism.
Her elder son, Justin, said Ms. McDonough did not take the sexism personally, rather plowing ahead with her agenda to ensure equality opportunity for everyone.
“Her life mission has been, it sounds cheesy to say, to improve the human condition. I honestly think that that was what she was born to do,” Justin said.
Ms. McDonough was born Alexa Ann Shaw on Aug. 11, 1944, to Jean (née MacKinnon) and Lloyd Shaw in Ottawa. Her father was a wealthy businessman and prominent member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the precursor to the New Democratic Party. The family moved back to Halifax when she was a child, where she grew up and trained as a ballet dancer in her youth.
Ms. McDonough attended Queen’s University in Kingston for two years before transferring to Dalhousie University in Halifax, where she studied sociology and psychology. She received her undergraduate degree in 1965 and her Master’s of Social Work in 1967.
The social worker married Halifax lawyer Peter McDonough in 1966 and assumed his last name.
Justin remembers his mother as a non-judgmental woman who successfully juggled the challenges of parenting and political life.
“My brother and I, in our teen years and into university, we were hooligans,” Justin said. “She never tried to indoctrinate us or force us to have an opinion that wasn’t our own and I think that may have been the greatest gift she gave to us, to think on our own, to develop on our own and to create independence.”
The McDonoughs separated in the late 1980s, but they maintained a respectful relationship. Peter died two months before his ex-wife.
Ms. McDonough got her start in politics with the Nova Scotia Liberals in 1970, helping to write the party’s social policy platform under leader Gerald Regan. Disillusioned with the Liberals, Ms. McDonough left the party for the NDP in 1974.
After two unsuccessful runs for the federal NDP in Halifax, she won the provincial NDP leadership and ran for the Halifax Chebucto seat in 1981. On election day, Liberal incumbent Walter Fitzgerald told Ms. McDonough’s husband that she didn’t stand a chance. Hours later, Mr. Fitzgerald ate his words – Ms. McDonough won the seat, becoming the NDP’s lone voice in the legislature. Mr. Fitzgerald finished in third place.
As the only woman in Province House for three years, Ms. McDonough criticized the old boys’ club of politics.
For instance, she was forced to use the women’s public washroom a floor below the chamber while her male colleagues had a dedicated washroom steps from their seats. However, she made the best of the situation. In a 2018 interview with The Signal, a University of King’s College student publication, she recounted how other women waiting in the washroom line would give her tips about political issues in the community.
Ms. McDonough resigned as provincial NDP leader in 1994 and won the federal party leadership race the following year, defeating perceived front-runners Svend Robinson and Lorne Nystrom.
Similar to her provincial experience, she was elected leader before winning a seat. She later ran in the 1997 federal election, winning the Halifax riding while leading the NDP from nine seats in to 21 in the House of Commons.
Karl Bélanger worked as Ms. McDonough’s press secretary from 1999 to 2003 when she was leader. He recalled the irony of the fact that, as the MP for Halifax, she had an allergy to shellfish and encountered it at countless kitchen parties and church basement community events.
“How can you be a political leader from Nova Scotia and be allergic to seafood?” Mr. Bélanger laughed.
Ms. McDonough thrived when interacting with Canadians, whether it be at a legion hall or on Parliament Hill. However, her authenticity was both a blessing and a curse. Mr. Bélanger said Ms. McDonough was constantly late because she would stop to talk to anyone who wanted to speak with her.
Mr. Bélanger credits Ms. McDonough with reviving the NDP and bringing it back to official party status in the 1997 election.
“She passed the torch to Jack Layton and had the party in such good shape that he was able to build on that and eventually bring on the orange wave,” Mr. Bélanger said.
Mr. Layton succeeded Ms. McDonough as leader in 2003. She kept her seat after stepping down and was named foreign affairs critic. Under Mr. Layton’s leadership, the NDP eventually formed the Official Opposition in the 2011 election. The party’s rise in popularity became known as the “orange wave” or “orange crush.”
During her time on Parliament Hill, Ms. McDonough was romantically involved with former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister David MacDonald. The pair broke up just before the 2004 federal election but remained in contact, even until last year when Mr. MacDonald paid Ms. McDonough a visit.
Ms. McDonough announced her retirement from politics in 2008 at Halifax’s Lord Nelson Hotel, where she had launched her political career 29 years earlier.
Megan Leslie, then a community legal worker, succeeded Ms. McDonough as the MP for Halifax. Ms. Leslie said Ms. McDonough perfectly struck the fine balance of supporting her while trusting in her ability to represent the riding on Parliament Hill.
Ms. McDonough paved the way for women of all political stripes to enter politics. In a tweet shortly after her death, former Conservative MP Lisa Raitt said Ms. McDonough was a role model for her.
“I wouldn’t have grown up in N.S. [Nova Scotia] with the belief that women belonged in politics but for Alexa McDonough,” Ms. Raitt tweeted.
In 2009, Ms. McDonough was named interim president of Mount Saint Vincent University, in Halifax. She received numerous honours during her lifetime, including four honorary degrees and appointment to the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia.
Ms. McDonough’s final years were spent in Halifax, where her son Justin purchased the family home. Travis eventually bought the house next door and her seven grandchildren grew up as neighbours.
She started showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease before being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. Justin said his eldest daughter, 20-year-old Abbie Jean McDonough, acted as an “ambassador” for Ms. McDonough’s grandchildren when COVID-19 restrictions limited visitors to her long-term care home.
“The way she conducted herself on behalf of all the grandkids was really touching. Mum was in a tough place but I would say she knew that we were all there and my daughter as able to convey that love,” Justin said.
Last summer, despite her memory struggles, Ms. McDonough asked about Ms. Mazigh. A call was co-ordinated so the old friends could reconnect. Although it was hard for Ms. Mazigh to see Ms. McDonough deteriorating, she said she still saw signs of the Alexa who had the courage to stand up for what was right two decades ago, regardless of how politically risky it was.
“In those moments in 2002 after the war on terror started, it was very hard to be on the right side of history and Alexa, I think, was.”