Kim Campbell

Kim Campbell in 2009

Avril Phaedra Douglas "Kim" Campbell (born March 10, 1947) is a Canadian politician, diplomat, lawyer, and writer who served as the 19th prime minister of Canada from June 25 to November 4, 1993. Campbell is the first and so far only female prime minister of Canada. Prior to becoming the final Progressive Conservative (PC) prime minister, she was also the first woman to serve as minister of justice in Canadian history and the first woman to become minister of defence in a NATO member state.

Quotes

• The things I’ve done are different, but the values and interests that underlie them are quite the same.
  • [1] interview with Helen Farrell

• The sad thing is that one of the most enjoyable things in life is singing together with others, but it’s also one of the most efficient ways of spreading a virus.
  • [2]On how she enjoys her music

• "Governments are not always the best doctors when it comes to diagnosing economic ailments and prescribing the right treatment"
  • [3]on government

• Power is real and somebody is going to have it. So, if you would exercise it ethically and in the national interest, why shouldn't it be you? And why shouldn't it have been me?
  • [4]

• Not the sexism that says 'We don't like women,'" she said. "It's the sexism that holds you to a different standard, that doesn't give you the benefit of the doubt, that operates on the assumption that you don't really belong there
  • [5] She called out "sexism" and "hypocrisy."

• As the years go on and nobody else has done this, I feel an obligation to remind people of what it really meant to be elected the leader of a governing party. The value of it is to inspire others to aspire
  • [6]

• Unconsented sexual touching is a sexual assault, and somebody who does that, who thinks he has a right to do that, who does it thinking that it’s a reflection of his value because he’s a celebrity, et cetera, I mean that is predation
  • [7] Campbell told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

• He has released a wave of misogynistic rhetoric in the guise of being opposed to political correctness, the giving permission of people to express the worst misogynistic attitudes is incredibly dangerous and very, very worrisome
  • [8] on Donald Trump

• The idea of delegitimizing the results, as a result of his own vanity, is something that he has taken on and it is very dangerous, the notion that you would want to open a wound and encourage people … to believe somehow an election was stolen from their candidate is really a crime against democracy
  • [9] on any perception of interference could be magnified given Trump’s repeated claims that if he loses the election in November, it will be due to a “rigged” system

• I'm sorry, if you're not worried about climate change, and you're not worried about resurgent authoritarianism, and you're not a champion of the rights of women to make the contributions they need to make in society, I’m not interested
  • [10]she said in an interview on CTV’s Question Period airing Sunday

• They got to deal with it. [The party] ought not stick its head in the sand. It ought to show leadership. We talked about abortion, we talked about gun control, I dealt with a lot of issues that nobody in their right mind would choose to deal with but they had to be dealt with
  • [11] Campbell argued candidates “ought to show leadership” on contentious issues.