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Dorothy Dobbie

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Dorothy Dobbie
MP CM
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Winnipeg South
In office
November 21, 1988 – October 24, 1993
Preceded byconstituency established
Succeeded byReg Alcock
Personal details
Born (1945-01-05) 5 January 1945 (age 79)
NationalityCanadian
Political partyProgressive Conservative
ChildrenShauna Dobbie
ResidenceWinnipeg
Occupationpublisher, businesswoman
PortfolioParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (1989–1991)
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs/Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of State (Agriculture) (1991–1993)
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment (1993)

Dorothy Ina Elgiva Dobbie CM (born January 5, 1945) is a Canadian businesswoman and former politician. She served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1993, as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.[1]

Dobbie was a publisher before entering political life, and was a founder of Association Publications Ltd. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. In 1983, she was named Outstanding Business Citizen of the Year by the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce.

In 2012, Dobbie was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions and achievements as a Canadian citizen.[2][3]

Politics

Dobbie was elected to the House of Commons in the 1988 election, defeating Liberal candidate Allan Kaufman by 715 votes to win the federal riding of Winnipeg South, re-created by the federal electoral boundary redistribution of 1987.[4] The Progressive Conservatives won a majority government in the election, and Dobbie entered parliament as a government backbencher.

She served as parliamentary secretary to seven different ministers between 1989 and 1993, and was a member of fifteen committees.[5] Dobbie acted as Co-Chair, alongside Claude Castonguay, on the Special Joint Committee on a Renewed Canada, and the committee's recommendations on constitutional reform later formed the basis of the government's 1992 Charlottetown Accord, which was defeated in a national referendum.[5][6]

Dobbie supported Jean Charest's bid to succeed Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as Progressive Conservative leader in 1993 (Winnipeg Free Press, 11 June 1993), and retained her own nomination for the next federal election over a challenge from Charles Maximilian (Winnipeg Free Press, 16 March 1993).

The PC Party was resoundingly defeated in the 1993 election, losing all but two of its parliamentary seats. Dobbie lost her candidate's deposit, receiving 6,432 votes (12.29%) for a third-place finish against Liberal Reg Alcock. During the campaign, she accused the rival Reform Party of being controlled by Christian fundamentalists and criticized her own party for running advertisements that mocked Liberal leader Jean Chrétien's facial deformity (Winnipeg Free Press, 17 October 1993). She also called for the abolition of the Senate of Canada (Winnipeg Free Press, 18 July 1993).

After Charest's resignation as Progressive Conservative Party leader in 1998, she endorsed former prime minister Joe Clark in his successful bid to succeed him (Toronto Star, 29 June 1998).

Dobbie opposed the Progressive Conservative Party's merger with the Canadian Alliance in 2003, citing concern over unclear agendas of the new party, and she later endorsed Glen Murray, the former mayor of Winnipeg who ran as a Liberal candidate in the 2004 federal election in Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia.[7] When Sinclair Stevens, another former Progressive Conservative MP, launched an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit to try to block the merger, Dobbie was one of eleven other party members who openly backed the Affidavit.[8]

Post-political work

Dobbie helped to found Pegasus Publications Inc. in 1996, and still serves as its president. She is now the publisher of Manitoba Gardener, Ontario Gardener and Alberta Gardener magazines, and has written several articles on gardening. With her daughter, Shauna Dobbie, she has written The Book of 10 Neat Things, a book of horticultural advice which has been published in at least two editions.[9]

In 1997, Dobbie was appointed to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, Prairie Region.[10]

In 2004, Dobbie was appointed a board member of Tree Canada.[11] After she served as chair from 2008 to 2011, a Tree Canada news release announced that Dobbie was stepping down from the position.[12]

Electoral history

1993 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South
Party Candidate Votes % Expenditures
Liberal Reg Alcock 25,950 49.60 $39,157
Reform Mark Hughes 14,822 28.33 $49,384
Progressive Conservative Dorothy Dobbie 6,432 12.29 $23,095
National Shirley Loewen 2,512 4.80 $21,347
New Democratic Rose Buss 2,180 4.17 $424
Natural Law Richard Lepinsky 197 0.38 $231
Rhinoceros Mike Olito 113 0.22 $728
Marxist–Leninist Rubin Kantorovich 68 0.13 $216
Canada Party Bill Martens 44 0.08 $140
Total valid votes 52,318 100.00
Total rejected ballots 214
Turnout 52,532 72.35
Electors on lists 72,611
Source: Thirty-fifth General Election, 1993: Official Voting Results, Published by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. Financial figures taken from official contributions and expenses provided by Elections Canada.
1988 Canadian federal election: Winnipeg South
Party Candidate Votes %
Progressive Conservative Dorothy Dobbie 22,865 45.9
Liberal Allan Kaufman 22,150 44.5
New Democratic Len Van Roon 3,151 6.3
Reform Gary Cummings 1,428 2.9
Libertarian Jim Weidman 168 0.3
Total valid votes 49,762 100.0

References

  1. ^ "Dorothy I. Dobbie". PARLIAMENT OF CANADA. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  2. ^ General, The Office of the Secretary to the Governor. "The Governor General of Canada". Archived from the original on 12 March 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  3. ^ Goldsborough, Gordon. "Manitoba Recipients of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal". www.mhs.mb.ca. Archived from the original on 23 July 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  4. ^ "CBC - Canada Votes 2004". www.cbc.ca. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  5. ^ a b "PARLINFO - Parliamentarian File - Complete File - DOBBIE, Dorothy I." Archived from the original on 29 May 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  6. ^ McConnell, W.H. "Constitutional History". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  7. ^ "Former Manitoba PCs back Liberals". CBC News. Archived from the original on 12 March 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  8. ^ http://www.davidorchard.com/online/PDF_files/factum-stevens-20040311.pdf Archived 8 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine www.davidorchard.com. Retrieved 2017-05-18.
  9. ^ Cullen, Mark; Cullen, Ben (20 June 2019). "This is the stuff you didn't realize you needed to know about gardening". North Shore News. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
  10. ^ [1] Archived September 25, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ "Personals / Carrière et emploi". The Forestry Chronicle. 80 (3): 338–340. 2004. doi:10.5558/tfc80338-3.
  12. ^ Studio, Tonik Web. "Tree Canada :: 2011 News Releases". Tree Canada. Archived from the original on 3 February 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
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