Does Not Intend To Stand For Parliament Again

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31118, 22 July 1966, Page 2

Does Not Intend To Stand For Parliament Again

Canada’s only woman Cabinet Minister, Miss Judy LaMarsh, the Secretary of State, said on arrival in Christchurch yesterday that she did not expect to stand for the Federal Parliament again. Miss LaMarsh thinks that politic- j ians have a bad habit of “hanging on for too long” and refusing to accept that it is time they retired. She wants to | avoid the habit.

By 1970, 60 per cent of Canada's population will be under 25. By then she will be 45 and feels that a young population should be represented by those close to it in age and outlook. “I want to go back to law and be a private person again,” she said. Miss LaMarsh entered politics more by accident thau by design. Her father was interested in politics bin did not run for office. She joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps in 1943 and served as a draughtsman and later as a Japanese interpreter. Duties during an election gave her an interest in Liberal Party politics and while studying for her B.A. and later for her law degree she joined party organisations. Miss LaMarsh returned to Niagara Falls and in 1950 went into partnership with her father. In 10 years she gained a reputation as a hard working lawyer whose cases ranged from murder trials to municipal affairs. During that time she also was a director of the Greatei Niagara Hospital Board, budget chairman of the Greater Niagara Community Chest, president of the Canadian Club, secretary-treasurer of the Niagara Falls Bar Association and of the Ontario Federation of Law Associations, vice-president of the Ontario Liberal Association, president of the Ontario Women’s Liberal Association and vice-president of the Young

Liberal Federation of Canada. She was one of the first women municipal solicitors to be appointed and in 1963 was appointed Queen’s Counsel (Canada). Three years after winning a tough by-election in Niagara Fails in 1960, she became

Minister of National Health and Welfare in the Pearson Cabinet—the second woman to hold Cabinet rank. The job involved “bread and butter” and “a fight against vested interests.” However she played a large part in implementing the Canada pension plan, and in initiating proposals for a national medical care programme and the

development of a new Canada assistance plan, through which financial aid will be provided, where necessary, to all Canadians found to be in need. Miss LaMarsh also initiated a non-smoking and health programme. Believing that actions speak louder than words, she stopped smoking and has not resumed.

Last December, Miss LaMarsh was given a choice of three portfolios and accepted that of Secretary of State, responsible for about 14 organisations covering broadcasting, the Electoral Office, the National Film Board, the National Gallery and Library of Canada, and the Federal Centennial Commission. “I’m working with a different class of people now in a more subtle situation,” she said.

One of her most difficult problems Is to get the FrenchCanadian population to under, stand that she is interested in their culture. Separatism was no longer a live issue, she said.

Broadcasting was another difficulty. “I have learned the problems but not all the answers and have prepared a White Paper,” she said. Canada has both private and Government television. Miss LaMarsh said the Government had no say in programming. “We have managers and if they do not do their job, we g£t rid of them,” she said.

Miss LaMarsh’s main interests are cooking—“l like trying out new recipes”— primitive cultures, and knitting. She is hoping to find time to visit a wool shop while in Christchurch.