21 Facts About Pat Carney

Pat Carney ran again in the election the following year and won, representing the district of Vancouver Centre.

Pat Carney was the first woman named to each of these three major economic cabinet positions.

Pat Carney did not seek a third term during the next federal election in 1988, and was succeeded by future prime minister Kim Campbell.

Pat Carney had three siblings, a brother named Thomas, a twin brother named John James and a younger sister, Norah.

Pat Carney's brother recalled that she demonstrated a keen interest in organizing various events for her family and neighbours by the time she was ten years old, including plays, which she frequently wrote and starred in.

In 1956 when Pat Carney was twenty-one years old, Pat Carney married the Vancouver Province's rewrite chief, Gordon Dickson.

Pat Carney was fifteen years older than her and had a daughter from a previous marriage.

Pat Carney kept her maiden name and continued to work as a freelance journalist to support Dickson while he finished law school, which was unusual for women of the time.

Pat Carney attended the University of British Columbia and graduated in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in economics and political science.

Alongside her twin brother Jim, Pat Carney joined the university's student-run newspaper, the Ubyssey.

Pat Carney wrote television specials for the CBC and CTV on finance and economics.

In 1970, a strike at the Vancouver Sun left Pat Carney, who was recently divorced and a single mother, unemployed.

Pat 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.

Pat Carney was joined by her brother during the flight in and out of the Polar Basin.

Pat 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.

Pat Carney first ran for the House of Commons of Canada as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the 1979 election and was defeated.

Pat Carney was elected in the 1980 election as the Member of Parliament from Vancouver Centre.

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

In 1997, Pat Carney suggested that British Columbia might benefit from separating from Canada.

In 2000, Pat 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.

On October 11,2007, the Prime Minister's Office announced that Senator Pat Carney intended to resign, two years in advance of the mandatory retirement age of 75 years.