From Our Editors
When usual proceedings in the House of Commons
came to a shocking halt on December 9, 1998, Liberal MP for
Windsor-St.Clair Shaughnessy Cohen lay dead on the floor of the
chamber. What followed was a profound if not surprising outpouring
of grief and dismay as politicians from every party, from
backbencher up to the PM himself voiced their grief. Shaughnessy: The Passionate
Politics of Shaughnessy Cohen tells the story of this
remarkable woman's life, from law-school to success in Ottawa's
political circle. Author Susan Delacourt
reveals a young politician determined to meet the challenges in a
man's world as she developed a style of politics that transcended
barriers and made her a powerful, yet subtle presence. Eschewing
the spotlight, hers wasn't an image you saw nightly on the
six-o'clock news, but it was her passing that revealed an indelible
mark made on the face of Canadian politics.
From the Publisher
On December 9, 1998, the proceedings in the House of Commons came
to a shocking halt when the Liberal MP for Windsor-St Clair,
Shaughnessy Cohen, collapsed on the floor of the chamber. The
heartfelt outpouring of every party, from foreign ambassadors, even
from seasoned press gallery journalists - caught those beyond the
hothouse of Parliament Hill by surprise. Who was this woman, an
apparently obscure second-term backbencher, who commanded such
respect and affection?
Shaughnessy Cohen''s story is one that Canadians rarely see up
close: the rollercoaster career of a politician who operates
outside the spotlight reserved for cabinet ministers, whose hectic
life is divided between the nation''s capital and a modest
constituency office back home, whose only national coverage might
be found in the barbed satire of Frank magazine. But to those who
knew her, the 50-year-old Cohen - born into an Irish Catholic
family, married to a Jewish academic - was an exceptional,
unforgettable figure.
A criminal lawyer who, like the city she represented, enjoyed a
slightly naughty, good-time reputation, Shaughnessy Cohen learned
how to use women''s politics to succeed in a man''s world. When she
arrived in Ottawa in 1993, she was shamelessly partisan and
fiercely ambitious, carefully cultivating ties with power brokers
like Paul Martin, Allan Rock, Herb Gray, Lloyd Axworthy, and Anne
McLellan, her Ottawa roommate. And she was notoriously indiscreet;
even the PMO couldn''t quiet "Radio Shaughnessy" when the Liberals
were warring amongst themselves over gun control and gay rights.
By the time of her death, she had served as a member of Parliament
for five years, surviving the infighting of Windsor politics to win
her seat in two elections, learning sometimes painful lessons as a
rookie, and finally finding her niche as the much admired chair of
the Justice Committee. Eventually she developed a style of politics
reaching across barriers that discouraged others and leavening
every effort with a generous humour that was subtly effective. To
watch how she did it is to go inside the nomination battles, the
caucus meetings, the committee rooms where the unseen drama of the
nation''s politics is played out, and the understand, perhaps in a
way that has never before been so fully revealed, the realities
that confront a woman in political life.
About the Author
Susan Delacourt, who knew Shaughnessy Cohen for
almost a decade, was parliamentary correspondent for the Globe
and Mail for ten years. In her sixteen years with the
Globe she also served on the editorial board, won the
paper''s Stanley McDowell award for writing, and was nominated for
a National Newspaper Award for her coverage of the Meech Lake
Accord. In 1993 she published United We Fall, a critically
acclaimed account of the Charlottetown constitutional talks. Now a
columnist for the Ottawa Citizen, she lives in Ottawa.
