Kim Campbell

Kim Campbell became Canada's nineteenth and first female prime minister in June 1993 and served in this position until November 1993. She previously held cabinet portfolios as Minister of State for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Minister of National Defense and Minister of Veterans' Affairs. She was the first woman to hold the Justice and Defense portfolios, and the first woman to be defense minister of a NATO country. Campbell participated in major international meetings including the Commonwealth, NATO, the G-7 Summit and the United Nations General Assembly.

Throughout her political career in Canada, Campbell was deeply engaged in international issues, including law reform and criminal justice, international trade (her signature appears on the NAFTA side agreements) and security (both as minister of defense and prime minister). As justice minister, she served on the War Cabinet during the First Gulf War.

Campbell was born in Port Alberni, British Columbia, on March 10, 1947. She was educated at the University of British Columbia (BA, 1969, LLB, 1983) and the London School of Economics (doctoral studies in Soviet government, ABD, 1970 to 1973), where she is an honorary fellow. She holds nine honorary doctorates. The third edition of her best-selling political memoir, "Time and Chance," was released in May of 2008 by the University of Alberta Bookstore.

After her tenure as prime minister, Campbell was a fellow at the Institute of Politics (spring 1994) and the Joan Shorenstein Center for the Study of Press and Politics (1994 to 1995) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She served as the Canadian consulate general in Los Angeles (1996 to 2000). She taught at the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School (2001 to 2004) and remains an honorary fellow there.

Campbell served as secretary general of the Club of Madrid (2004 to 2006), an organization of former heads of government and state who work to promote democratization through peer relations with leaders of transitional democracies. She is a founding member of the club and served as its acting president in 2002, its vice president in 2003 to 2004 and served on its board of directors from 2007 to 2011.

Campbell also served as the chair of the Council of Women World Leaders (1999 to 2003). The council's membership consists of women who hold or have held the office of president or prime minister in their own country. Campbell also served as president of the International Women's Forum (2003 to 2005), a global organization of women of significant and diverse achievement.

Campbell is chair of the International Advisory Board of the Foundation for Effective Governance in Kiev and chairs the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy. She is a trustee of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ICSR) at King's College London. She serves on advisory boards of numerous other international organizations, such as the Arab Democracy Foundation in Doha, the Middle Powers Initiative (MPI) and the newly launched Concord Project at UCLA. Campbell is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, (the West Coast affiliate of the Council on Foreign Relations), the Global Council of the Asia Society of New York and Board of the Forum of Federations, and as a senior advisor to the Crisis Group.

Campbell's corporate director experience includes the high tech, biotech and medical devices industries. She is a consultant on issues related to democratization and leadership, and is a founding member of the board of the Women's Leadership Fund, an investment fund based in Geneva. She speaks widely on issues related to leadership, international politics, democratization, climate change, gender and Canadian/American relations.

In April 2014, Campbell was appointed the founding principal of the new Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta.

Photo by Skcdoenut (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sources:

Club de Madrid (n.d.). “Kim Campbell” Club de Madrid. Retrieved December 2, 2022. https://clubmadrid.org/who/members/campbell-kim/

Columbia University (n.d.). “Kim Campbell” World Leaders' Forum. Retrieved December 2, 2022. https://worldleaders.columbia.edu/directory/kim-campbell

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (1999, July 28). “Kim Campbell” Britannica. Retrieved December 2, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kim-Campbell

The Right Honourable Kim Campbell (n.d.). “Biography” The Right Honourable Kim Campbell. Retrieved December 2, 2022. https://www.kimcampbell.com/node/7