Elizabeth Shaughnessy Cohen ( Murray; February 11, 1948 – December 9, 1998) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician who represented the riding of Windsor—St. Clair for the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia' ...

from 1993 until her death in 1998."MP dies after collapsing in House: Shaughnessy Cohen". ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', December 10, 1998.

Background

She was born in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximat ...

, and grew up in Thamesville."New Kids on the Block: Shaughnessy Cohen: Feisty, competitive, dedicated". ''

Windsor Star The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays. History The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bor ...

'', November 20, 1993. She studied English literature and sociology at the

University of Windsor , mottoeng = Goodness, Discipline and Knowledge , established = , academic_affiliations = CARL, COU, Universities Canada , former_names = Assumption College (1857-1956)Assumption University of Windsor (1956-1963) , type = Public univers ...

, and taught at St. Clair College before returning to law school. She married Jerry Cohen, a psychology professor, in 1971. She had originally intended to keep her own surname, but opted to take her husband's name when she realized it would make her both Irish and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. She was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1979,"Liberal MP's charm won friends in all parties". '' The Globe and Mail'', December 10, 1998. and worked as a lawyer until her election to Parliament.

Political career

Cohen stood as the Liberal candidate in Windsor—St. Clair in the 1988 election, but lost to

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * ...

incumbent Howard McCurdy. However, in the 1993 election, Cohen defeated McCurdy for the seat. Following the election, she was briefly the subject of controversy when she and her husband were sued for $200,000 in unpaid debt, but Cohen blamed the situation on the costs of conducting a political campaign and the controversy soon subsided after she agreed to a debt consolidation plan. Her first political action after being sworn in as a Member of Parliament was a letter requesting that the federal government building in Windsor be named after former MP Paul Martin, Sr., a request which the government accepted. After the first sitting of the new parliament in January 1994, Cohen was the first newly elected MP to be subjected to a critical profile in '' Frank'', although both Cohen and the ''

'' criticized the profile's accuracy. In February 1994, Cohen was appointed to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources and Development. In June, she was one of several Liberal MPs, alongside

Jean Augustine Jean Augustine (born September 9, 1937) is a Grenada-born Canadian politician. She was the first Black Canadian woman to serve as a federal Minister of the Crown and Member of Parliament. From 1993 to 2006, Jean Augustine was a Liberal membe ...

Barry Campbell Barry R. Campbell (born June 15, 1950) is a Canadian lawyer, lobbyist and former politician. He served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 1997 as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada. Life and career Campbell was born in Montrea ...

, Bill Graham and

Hedy Fry Hedy Madeleine Fry, (born August 6, 1941) is a Trinidadian-Canadian politician and physician who is currently the longest-serving female Member of Parliament, winning nine consecutive elections in the constituency of Vancouver Centre includin ...

, who privately intervened with

Ontario Liberal Party The Ontario Liberal Party (OLP; french: Parti libéral de l'Ontario, PLO) is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by interim leader John Fraser since August 2022. The party espouses the principles of lib ...

leader Lyn McLeod to encourage her not to withdraw the party's support of the

Equality Rights Statute Amendment Act The ''Equality Rights Statute Amendment Act'', (formally ''An Act to Amend Ontario Statutes to Provide for the Equal Treatment of Persons in Spousal Relationships''), commonly known as Bill 167, was a proposed law in the Canadian province of Ont ...

(Bill 167). In August, she was appointed co-chair with

Herb Gray Herbert Eser Gray (May 25, 1931 – April 21, 2014) was a Canadian lawyer who became a prominent federal politician. He was a Liberal member of parliament for the Windsor area over the course of four decades, from 1962 to 2002, making Gray o ...

of a parliamentary subcommittee to investigate allegations against the

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; french: Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité, ''SCRS'') is Canada's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for collecting, analysing, reporting and disseminating i ...

, including the role of Grant Bristow as an informant. On the final day of the

1995 Ontario provincial election The 1995 Ontario general election was held on June 8, 1995, to elect members of the 36th Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario, Canada. The writs for the election were dropped on April 28, 1995. The governing New Democratic Party, le ...

campaign, Cohen was one of several MPs, alongside Jane Stewart, Paddy Torsney, Benoît Serré and Stan Dromisky, who made speeches in the federal House of Commons campaigning on behalf of McLeod's Ontario Liberal Party and against the

Ontario Progressive Conservative Party The Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (french: Parti progressiste-conservateur de l'Ontario), often shortened to the Ontario PC Party or simply the PCs, colloquially known as the Tories, is a centre-right political party in Ontario, Canada ...

Mike Harris Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a Canadian retired politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. During his time ...

. In September 1995, she was one of only a few MPs to vote in favour of

Réal Ménard Réal Ménard (born May 13, 1962) is a Canadian politician, who was a Bloc Québécois member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2009. He was the second Canadian member of Parliament to come out as gay. Ménard is a political scien ...

's private member's motion calling on the government to recognize

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. In January 1996, she travelled to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

as an election monitor for the Palestinian Authority election. In March, she was appointed to and named as chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice. In this capacity, she conducted a review of the federal

Young Offenders Act The ''Young Offenders Act'' (YOA; french: Loi sur les jeunes contrevenants) (the ''Act'') was an act of the Parliament of Canada, granted Royal Assent in 1982 and proclaimed in force on April 2, 1984, that regulated the criminal prosecution of ...

, which led to reforms announced by Justice Minister

Anne McLellan A. Anne McLellan (born August 31, 1950) is a Canadian politician and academic who served as the ninth deputy prime minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006. She was a cabinet minister in the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Marti ...

in 1998. She was re-elected in the 1997 election by a narrower margin, due to a significant resurgence in support for the New Democratic Party."Cohen wins tight race". ''

'', June 3, 1997. Her NDP challenger was

Joe Comartin Joseph John Comartin (born December 26, 1947) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. Comartin joined the New Democratic Party in 1969 and represented the party in the House of Commons of Canada from 2000 to 2015. He is currently consul general of ...

. In her second term, she identified one of her key goals as advocating for a crossnational environmental project to clean up pollution in the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Det ...

. On December 9, 1998, she collapsed in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, just seconds after she had stood to address the House. She had suffered a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...

and was pronounced dead soon afterward. She was the fifth MP in Canadian history to die on Parliament Hill, and the first ever to suffer a fatal health incident in the House of Commons chamber rather than in her office or on the wider Parliament Hill grounds."Tears for colleague in Commons: Liberal MP Shaughnessy Cohen is remembered as a good friend and a tenacious opponent". ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', December 11, 1998. In the House the following day, MPs from all parties spoke in tribute to Cohen. Reform Party MP Randy White praised her personality as "a seemingly impossible combination of vigorous partisanship and open-minded friendship," while New Democratic Party leader

Alexa McDonough Alexa Ann McDonough ( Shaw; August 11, 1944 – January 15, 2022) was a Canadian politician who became the first woman to lead a major, recognized political party in Nova Scotia, when she was elected the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party's (NSN ...

paid tribute to Cohen's passionate belief in "the pursuit of justice for the rights of those who were not being fully respected." Historian Charlotte Gray, a personal friend of Cohen's, revealed that Cohen had once filled the glass on

Paul Martin Paul Edgar Philippe Martin (born August 28, 1938), also known as Paul Martin Jr., is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 21st prime minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006. The son o ...

's House of Commons desk with gin just before a budget speech, while Liberal Party strategist

Jerry Yanover Jerald "Jerry" Yanover (January 3, 1947 – July 26, 2009) was a political advisor in Canada. For several decades, Yanover was the leading advisor to the Liberal Party of Canada House Leader. He was considered to be one of Canada's foremost e ...

described her as "an up-front, in-your-face, old-fashioned Liberal, the kind that had principles and didn't compromise them." Following the speeches, MPs unanimously agreed to immediately adjourn the House for the Christmas holiday, several days earlier than planned. Following her death, her widower Jerry ran for the Liberal nomination in the resulting by-election, but lost to city councillor Rick Limoges. Limoges won the by-election, narrowly defeating Comartin, although Comartin defeated Limoges in the 2000 election. She is buried on Pelee Island, Canada’s most southern inhabited land. Her gravesite can be found in the municipal cemetery there.

Legacy

In 2000, the

Writers' Trust of Canada The Writers' Trust of Canada (french: La Société d'encouragement aux écrivains du Canada) is a registered charity which provides financial support to Canadian writers. Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, Margaret Laur ...

instituted a literary award, the Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing, in her memory. Journalist Susan Delacourt published a biography of Cohen, ''Shaughnessy: The Passionate Politics of Shaughnessy Cohen'', the same year."A woman's place is in the House". '' The Globe and Mail'', June 17, 2000.

Electoral record

, - ,

, Howard McCurdy , align="right", 18,915 , Liberal , Shaughnessy Cohen , align="right", 16,192 , Progressive Conservative , Bruck Easton , align="right", 8,453 , - , Liberal , Shaughnessy Cohen , align="right", 22,958 ,

, Howard McCurdy , align="right", 8,871 , Progressive Conservative , Tom Porter , align="right", 4,553 ,

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

, Greg Novini , align="right", 4,153 ,

Natural Law Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacted ...

, Stephanie Moniatowicz , align="right", 194 , Marxist-Leninist , Dale Woodyard , align="right", 61 ,

Abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

, Ayesha F. Bharmal , align="right", 52 , - , Liberal , Shaughnessy Cohen , align="right", 16,496 ,

, align="right", 14,237 ,

, Harold Downs , align="right", 5,899 , Progressive Conservative , Bruck Easton , align="right", 4,253 , Marxist-Leninist , Dale Woodyard , align="right", 115

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Shaughnessy 1948 births 1998 deaths Women members of the House of Commons of Canada Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Politicians from London, Ontario Politicians from Windsor, Ontario 20th-century Canadian women politicians Canadian people of Irish descent University of Windsor alumni