Elsie Wayne
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Elsie Eleanore Wayne (née Fairweather; April 20, 1932 – August 23, 2016) was a Canadian politician who served as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Saint John from 1993 to 2004. She was born in
Shediac, New Brunswick Shediac (official in both languages; ''Shédiac'' is colloquial French) is a town in Westmorland County, New Brunswick, Westmorland County, New Brunswick known as the "Lobster Capital of the World". It hosts an annual festival every July which ...
.


Political career

In 1977, she was elected to the Saint John
municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...
council. In 1983, she became the first female mayor of Saint John, and became extremely popular in the city. In the 1993 federal election, she ran as the governing Progressive Conservative Party's candidate in the riding of Saint John-Rothesay. In this election, the Tories suffered the worst ever defeat for a governing party at the federal level in Canada. Wayne was one of only two Tories elected nationwide, the other being
Jean Charest John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that, he was a member of Parliament (MP) between 1984 and 1998. After holding se ...
; Charest won his third term at
Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...
in 1993. She was also the only non- Liberal elected in Atlantic Canada that year. She was elected by 4,000 votes, but never faced another contest nearly that close. In 1998, when Charest resigned the leadership of the PC party to become leader of the
Quebec Liberal Party The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; , PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955. The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuance ...
, Wayne was appointed the PC party's interim leader, a post she held until former
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Joe Clark Charles Joseph Clark (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian businessman, writer, and retired politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. He also served as Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada), leader of the ...
was elected party leader later that year. She supported the merger of the Progressive Conservatives (led by
Peter MacKay Peter Gordon MacKay (born September 27, 1965), a Canadian lawyer and politician, served as Member of Parliament (Canada), Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2015 and as Minister of Justice (Canada), Minister of Justice and Attorney General (20 ...
) and the
Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 2000 to 2003. The Canadian Alliance was the new name of the ...
(led by
Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...
) in 2003. Wayne announced her retirement from politics on February 16, 2004 and did not run for re-election in the 2004 election to the
House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...
.


Political positions

Politically, she was known as being
socially conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional social structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institu ...
, vehemently opposing
same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...
. She was also against
abortion rights Abortion-rights movements, also self-styled as pro-choice movements, are movements that advocate for legal access to induced abortion services, including elective abortion. They seek to represent and support women who wish to terminate their p ...
, decriminalization of
marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
, and
Viagra Sildenafil, sold under the brand name Viagra among others, is a medication used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension. It is also sometimes used off-label for the treatment of certain symptoms in secondary Ray ...
for war veterans. Fiscally, Wayne was a strong believer in Canada's
social safety net A social safety net (SSN) consists of non-contributory assistance existing to improve lives of vulnerable families and individuals experiencing poverty and destitution. Examples of SSNs are previously-contributory social pensions, in-kind and foo ...
and the
welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the State (polity), state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal oppor ...
, which was typical for most Tories from Atlantic Canada. She was also among Canada's most vocal
monarchists Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. C ...
.


Later life and death

Wayne considered a run for her old seat in the 2006 election, but decided against a comeback. She did, however, serve as chairwoman of the Conservative campaign in Atlantic Canada. She was married to Richard Wayne, with whom she had two sons, Daniel and Stephen. In November 2009, she suffered a stroke. She was released from hospital in February 2010. She died on August 23, 2016, at her home in Saint John.


Electoral history


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wayne, Elsie 1932 births 2016 deaths 20th-century Baptists 21st-century Canadian women politicians Canadian Baptists Canadian monarchists Conservative Party of Canada MPs Female Canadian political party leaders Mayors of Saint John, New Brunswick Members of the House of Commons of Canada from New Brunswick People from Shediac Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs Women mayors of places in New Brunswick Women members of the House of Commons of Canada 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 20th-century Canadian women politicians 20th-century mayors of places in New Brunswick