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Former NDP leader Alexa McDonough dead at 77

Former NDP leader Alexa McDonough has died at the age of 77 following a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. McDonough was first elected as leader of the Nova Scotia NDP party in 1980 before becoming the first woman to lead a recognized political party in Canada in 1995. After inheriting a party that had been decimated at the polls in the 1993 federal election, McDonough managed to increase the NDP’s seat count from nine to 21 seats in 1997 including historic breakthroughs in Atlantic Canada, where she captured her own riding of Halifax. After failing to build on those gains through the next federal campaign, McDonough stepped down from the leadership of the NDP in 2003 but remained in the House of Commons until 2005 before retiring from politics. McDonough was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2009.
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Written by: John Marchesan