Alexa McDonough: Trailblazing politician and activist, says new book
Former Member of Parliament for Halifax, and leader of the Nova Scotia’s and Canada’s New Democrats, Alexa McDonough is a trailblazer in many ways.
Her amazing career is retold by author Stephen Kimber in his new biography Alexa!: Changing the Face of Canadian Politics.
Many PeaceQuest supporters will know Alexa McDonough from her early battles as the lone female MLA in a hostile Nova Scotian legislature to her leadership of the federal NDP to her role as senior stateswoman in Jack Layton’s shadow cabinet as Foreign Affairs Critic.
You may also know her as an MP with a strong connection to the peace movement.
In this interview with PeaceQuest’s Steven Staples, author Stephen Kimber talks about her work and her pivotal role in the world after 9/11, and in freeing one of Canada’s most famous casualties of those dark days, Maher Arar.
Re Steven Kimber’s “Alexa!” and the question of how she obtained the support of military people in Halifax: As a former social worker, Alexa knew how to elicit and listen to people’s issues. She listened to all including military people who were a large constituent in her riding; she did not judge and always spoke up for them especially if she saw injustices.