Iona Victoria CampagnoloPCOCOBC (née Hardy; October 18, 1932 – April 4, 2024)[2] was a Canadian politician who served as the 27thLieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 2001 to 2007; Campagnolo was the first woman to hold that office. Prior to becoming lieutenant governor, she was a Cabinet member in the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
In 1982, she became president of the Liberal Party, a largely administrative position. During the 1984 convention which elected John Turner as party leader, Campagnolo created a minor furor within the party when she said that second-place leadership candidate Jean Chrétien was "second in the balloting, but first in our hearts".
When John Turner became Liberal leader in 1984, a television camera caught Turner patting Campagnolo's bottom. Although Campagnolo herself dismissed it (and patted Turner right back), the incident was used to paint Turner as being out of touch with contemporary women's issues.[4]
Campagnolo ran in North Vancouver—Burnaby in the September 1984 election but was defeated in the Mulroney landslide that reduced Turner's Liberals to 40 seats.[1] She did not run for re-election as party president at the next Liberal convention in 1986.
Campagnolo was the founding Chair of the non-profit Fraser Basin Council, serving from 1997 to 2001.
In 2001, on the advice of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, she was appointed by Governor GeneralAdrienne Clarkson as British Columbia's first female Lieutenant Governor.[1] At her swearing-in, Campagnolo concluded her remarks in Chinook, saying, "konoway tillicums klatawa kunamokst klaska mamook okoke huloima chee illahie" – meaning: "everyone was thrown together to make this strange new country (British Columbia)."[6] As the Queen's viceroy in British Columbia, she was styled The Honourable for life. However, as she was already a Member of The Queen's Privy Council for Canada before she became lieutenant-governor, she was already styled The Honourable.[citation needed] She served in that position until September 30, 2007.[1]
Iona Campagnolo received many honorary degrees in recognition of her distinguished career in politics and her service as Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia; these included:
Issuant from a circlet Vert edged Or set with a frieze of dogwood flowers, a trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator) wings elevated Argent gorged with a scarf of the MacDonald tartan proper.
Escutcheon
Azure two pallets wavy, overall a double-arched bridge Argent masoned Azure.
Supporters
Dexter a female Kermode bear sinister a male Kermode bear (Ursus americanus Kermodie) both proper and gorged with a collar of red cedar Vert pendent therefrom a hurt, that to the dexter charged with an orca as styled by Tsimshian artist Roy Henry Vickers, that to the sinister charged with an eagle as styled by Haida artist Bill Reid Or.
Compartment
A grassy mound set with Blue Camas (Camassia quamash), nodding onion (Allium cernuum) and Garry oaks (Quercus garryana) proper above barry wavy Argent and Azure.
Motto
With Change is Peace
Further reading
MacLean, Barbara Hutmacher (1997). I can't do what? voices of pathfinding women. Ventura, Calif: Pathfinder Pub. ISBN978-0-934793-62-9. OCLC34943352.
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