Monique Bégin - Ladies, Upstairs!: My Life in Politics and After

LADIES, UPSTAIRS!

LADIES,

Upstairs!

My Life in Politics and After

MONIQUE BGIN

McGill-Queens University Press

Montreal & Kingston London Chicago

McGill-Queens University Press 2018

ISBN 978-0-7735-5522-8 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-7735-5583-9 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-0-7735-5584-6 (ePUB)

Legal deposit first quarter 2019

Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free (100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. Lan dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de lart dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Bgin, Monique, 1936, author

Ladies, upstairs! : my life in politics and after / Monique Bgin.

Includes index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-7735-5522-8 (hardcover).

ISBN 978-0-7735-5583-9 (ePDF).

ISBN 978-0-7735-5584-6 (ePUB)

1. Bgin, Monique, 1936. 2. Canada Politics and government 19631984. 3. Cabinet ministers Canada Biography. 4. Women cabinet ministers Canada Biography. 5. Politicians Canada Biography. 6. Women politicians Canada Biography. 7. College teachers Canada Biography. 8. Autobiographies. I. Title.

Tout passe et tout reste

Mais notre destin est de passer

Passer en faisant des chemins

Des chemins sur la mer

~Antonio Machado

Every journey has a secret destination

of which the traveler is not aware.

~Martin Buber

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

~Robert Frost

Contents

BOB RAE

Foreword

BOB RAE

Politics is known as a harsh business, full of unprincipled people more interested in themselves and their own ambitions than anything else. It is said to be a ruthless game, where friendship and loyalty count for little and ideas and talent mean even less.

Having had the immense pleasure of working with Monique Bgin for nearly forty years, I can only say that none of the above applies in even the remotest sense to her. Hers has been a life dedicated to public policies that have directly improved the lives of millions of Canadians. She is interested in ideas but not ideologies. She is deeply principled but is also pragmatic and practical. She has made friends in all parties that have lasted for decades. Her word is her bond. Anyone interested in a life in politics would do well to learn from what she has done and how shes done it.

I knew her first when she was a minister and I was a rookie NDP member of Parliament. She was changing a universal benefit into a more focused program that would do more for those who needed it most. What impressed me was her willingness to go beyond the partisan battle and engage in a real discussion. This was not a game to her, it was something she thought made sense. She heard the arguments against, weighed them, and then sent notes suggesting a further dialogue. She was charming, disarming, funny, and above all, engaged. She won the vote, but she also won the argument.

Her stature grew with her appointment as minister of health, and here again she took problems and criticisms seriously. When New Democratic members of Parliament brought forward cases in question period of individuals and families being charged extra for surgeries that were already covered by medicare, a debate began in the country that concluded with the passage of the Canada Health Act in 1984 and the subsequent decision of most provinces to ban the practice. Her passion for social justice never wavered, nor did her gift for public administration.

When I became premier of Ontario, I asked Monique to take on the task of reforming Ontarios public education system. With her fellow commissioners she did an outstanding job and produced a report that became the blueprint for changes and improvements that have stood the test of time and many changes of government.

These great public achievements are matched by her style: she is fiercely pragmatic, insists on facts and evidence, is never afraid to do battle for what she is convinced needs to happen, and does it all with a huge smile and a great laugh. She has won hearts as well as minds.

A deeply progressive liberal, a passionate federalist, a feminist, and a dear friend, I count Monique as a guide and an inspiration. Long may she continue to make her outstanding contribution to our public life and happiness as a country.

The Hon. Bob Rae, PC, CC, OOnt, QC

My mother, Marie-Louise Vanhavre, as a young woman in Brussels, 1929.

My father, J.L.O. (Lucien) Bgin, in Paris, 1925.

Our transit certificate from Lisbon to Canada via New York on the Exeter, issued in Lisbon by the US Department of State, 31 July 1941. We landed in New York on 25 August 1941.

Aboard the Exeter, in New York, I give my first press conference, awaiting the paperwork required by Moms broken arm due to the ships negligence.

Having settled in Montreal, very European Sundays for Mother and the seven children; here we are at the Botanical Garden, 1947.

Getting permission to enter the NDG Girl Guides opened up a world of camaraderie and escape into nature. I am eleven years old at my first summer camp, Lac LAchigan, in the Laurentians, August 1947.

Classroom teacher at Collge Cardinal-Lger, in Rosemont, my last year as a teacher before starting my full-time graduate degree in sociology at Universit de Montral. Montreal, 195758.

Co-founding the Quebec Federation of Women in 1966 under Thrse Casgrains leadership would somehow change my life. After her too-short tenure as a senator, she came back in my ministerial life, helping me time and again.