The 19th prime minister of Canada emerged from around a corner at the University of Alberta and shook my hand. “Hi,” she said, “Kim Campbell.”
It’s hard to imagine another former state leader introducing herself by name, but Campbell’s time in 24 Sussex was brief, if not blurry. She had been ministers of State for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Justice, National Defence and Veteran Affairs. But her four months as prime minister were succinct compared to her contemporaries’ tenures. So her face – the shoulder-length blonde hair, the prominent nose – were never as indelible on the Canadian psyche as her name. The name, though, grips you as firmly as her handshake and reminds you of a national landmark, when Canada was one of the earliest democracies with a female head of state, even if the history-maker’s face is hard to place.
It also reminds you of the historic demise of the Canada’s founding party, the Progressive Conservatives, reduced from a majority government to two seats – neither her own Vancouver Centre riding – under her brief leadership.
So it might seem ironic that Campbell, whose 1993 political campaign Saturday Night magazine called the worst in Canadian history, is a founding principal of the Peter Lougheed Leadership Institute (PLLI), the U of A’s forthcoming college for tomorrow’s political, nongovernmental and corporate decision-makers. But such a judgement would dismiss her last chapter:Teaching at Harvard’s Centre for Public Leadership, the PLLI’s inspiration; founding the Club of Madrid for former heads of state and government; and persistently promoting the advancement of women through any means, including the Council of Women World Leaders, where she was chair emerita.
Campbell led me to her office on the second floor of the U of A’s President’s Building and sat behind an L-shaped desk in her office. “When people asked why do you want to be here,” she explained, “it’s because I like to build things. It’s an opportunity for me to bring together different things from my last 20 years and tie them up in a little bow.”