An Exemplary Life, Well Lived
In her eighty years she accomplished infinitely more for the good of her community and her country than most people could even dream of. That is, if they shared her immense capacity for empathy for others; that is, if they were prepared to dedicate themselves to the compassionate care of others; that is, if they were imbued with intelligence, energy and the spirit necessary to carry it off. She was one of a kind.
She represented womanhood at its very best. Seeking temporal status of power not for what it might reflect back on her as an accomplished woman, but for the opportunity it would afford her to convince others around her of their moral, ethical duty - as social liberals in a then-mono-cultural society - to the world around them. The Ottawa of her day, like the Canada of that time, while a country of immigrants, lacked true inclusive diversity.
She set out to change that in many different ways. She worked tirelessly, as a three-term mayor of Ottawa, the nation's capital, to transform the civic administration she was a part of, to exchange ideas with the citizens of the day, to encourage the enterprise of social acceptance of those outside the mainstream culture. And she succeeded, admirably, through the sheer force of her indomitable personality.
She was well ahead of her time; not a strident feminist, but a workaday, committed woman with a well developed social conscience who recognized the inequities of her society and worked tirelessly to even out opportunities for society's outcasts, the poor, the gender-differenced, the forlorn immigrants languishing in squalid refugee camps that she herself helped bring to a welcoming capital city.
She epitomized, as one close friend remembered her back then, the think-globally, act-locally philosophy, and then turned it on its head. Her sunny demeanor, her unswerving loyalty to those who elected her to make a better life for everyone in the city, earned her enormous respect and admiration. No moral or ethical lapse was beyond her considered gaze.
She declared the city a nuclear-free zone 30 years before it was given credence elsewhere. She lobbied to have California grapes boycotted in City Hall cafeteria, in solidarity with underpaid workers. She championed women's rights and gay rights; protested the U.S. invasion of Grenada, and made it her personal crusade to fight overcharging cash-chequing that exploited the poor.
Television images of Southeast Asian refugees desperate to flee their plight, using barely-credible sea-going vessels grabbed at her heartstrings. She met with the city's religious leaders, Immigration Canada, and pledged, with the assistance of avid supporters, to sponsor 4,000 refugees in a city whose indigenous population totalled 400,000.
A mother of five, and a Roman Catholic, she nonetheless struggled against her church's prohibition of female priests and its immovable stance on birth control, homosexuality and gay marriage. Trained as a public health nurse, she was a stay-at-home mother while her five children were in their formative years, to care for them.
After her thirteen-year stint as mayor of the city, she acted as chair of Oxfam Canada, and was appointed chair of the Ottawa-Carleton Police Services Board. She was also president of the federal New Democratic Party, and executive director of the Canadian Council on Children and Youth. She was a champion of the arts. Was awarded the Lester B. Pearson peace park award. And finally, the Order of Canada.
Could any life be more surfeit with accomplishment than hers? Well done, Marion Dewar. Rest in peace. You have left society a better place, for your tireless efforts on behalf of all of us.
She represented womanhood at its very best. Seeking temporal status of power not for what it might reflect back on her as an accomplished woman, but for the opportunity it would afford her to convince others around her of their moral, ethical duty - as social liberals in a then-mono-cultural society - to the world around them. The Ottawa of her day, like the Canada of that time, while a country of immigrants, lacked true inclusive diversity.
She set out to change that in many different ways. She worked tirelessly, as a three-term mayor of Ottawa, the nation's capital, to transform the civic administration she was a part of, to exchange ideas with the citizens of the day, to encourage the enterprise of social acceptance of those outside the mainstream culture. And she succeeded, admirably, through the sheer force of her indomitable personality.
She was well ahead of her time; not a strident feminist, but a workaday, committed woman with a well developed social conscience who recognized the inequities of her society and worked tirelessly to even out opportunities for society's outcasts, the poor, the gender-differenced, the forlorn immigrants languishing in squalid refugee camps that she herself helped bring to a welcoming capital city.
She epitomized, as one close friend remembered her back then, the think-globally, act-locally philosophy, and then turned it on its head. Her sunny demeanor, her unswerving loyalty to those who elected her to make a better life for everyone in the city, earned her enormous respect and admiration. No moral or ethical lapse was beyond her considered gaze.
She declared the city a nuclear-free zone 30 years before it was given credence elsewhere. She lobbied to have California grapes boycotted in City Hall cafeteria, in solidarity with underpaid workers. She championed women's rights and gay rights; protested the U.S. invasion of Grenada, and made it her personal crusade to fight overcharging cash-chequing that exploited the poor.
Television images of Southeast Asian refugees desperate to flee their plight, using barely-credible sea-going vessels grabbed at her heartstrings. She met with the city's religious leaders, Immigration Canada, and pledged, with the assistance of avid supporters, to sponsor 4,000 refugees in a city whose indigenous population totalled 400,000.
A mother of five, and a Roman Catholic, she nonetheless struggled against her church's prohibition of female priests and its immovable stance on birth control, homosexuality and gay marriage. Trained as a public health nurse, she was a stay-at-home mother while her five children were in their formative years, to care for them.
After her thirteen-year stint as mayor of the city, she acted as chair of Oxfam Canada, and was appointed chair of the Ottawa-Carleton Police Services Board. She was also president of the federal New Democratic Party, and executive director of the Canadian Council on Children and Youth. She was a champion of the arts. Was awarded the Lester B. Pearson peace park award. And finally, the Order of Canada.
Could any life be more surfeit with accomplishment than hers? Well done, Marion Dewar. Rest in peace. You have left society a better place, for your tireless efforts on behalf of all of us.
posted by Pieface @ 5:17 PM
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