Elaine McCoy

Elaine Jean McCoy (March 7, 1946 – December 29, 2020) was a Canadian politician from Alberta. She served as a Calgary MLA from 1986 to 1993. She was a member of the Senate of Canada.

In 2005, McCoy was appointed to the Senate. She designated herself a member of the Progressive Conservative Party despite its dissolution two years prior; following the retirement of Lowell Murray in 2011, she was the last remaining member of the Senate to sit as a Progressive Conservative. In 2016, she joined the Independent Senators Group (ISG) and served as its initial interim facilitator. In 2019, she left the ISG and joined the Canadian Senators Group.

McCoy was previously the Alberta PC MLA for Calgary-West from 1986 to 1993. During this time, she served as Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, Minister responsible for Women's Issues and Minister of Labour under Premier Don Getty.

Early life and education Born in Brandon, Manitoba, Elaine Jean McCoy was the daughter of John Frederick and Jean Stewart (Hope) McCoy. She was an alumna of the University of Alberta, and held an LLB (1969) and Bachelor of Arts in English (1968).

Before entering provincial politics, McCoy worked as senior legal counsel for the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board and as counsel for TransAlta Utilities Corporation. McCoy expected to be a backbencher, as she was not well-connected within the party, and was surprised to be immediately appointed to the Executive Council of Alberta. which was Alberta's first action plan designed to fight violence against women, and the first all-Canada declaration on the subject.

Leadership candidate When Getty retired in 1992, McCoy ran in the 1992 Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta leadership election to succeed him. She placed 8th in a field of nine and was eliminated on the first ballot; the contest was won by Ralph Klein. Klein did not appoint her to his cabinet, and she did not run for re-election in 1993.

Right-to-work joint review committee In 1995, McCoy was asked by the government of Alberta to chair a joint review committee (JRC) into whether or not right-to-work (RTW) legislation would be beneficial to the province. The committee was formed following a motion debated on March, and announced in April 1995. It delivered its unanimous report in November of the same year. It received 225 written submissions from Albertans on the issue. The JRC ultimately did not recommend RTW legislation for Alberta, as it found no evidence of economic advantage to it.

Senate of Canada alt=McCoy speaks with former prime minister Joe Clark, March 2010. McCoy speaks with former prime minister Joe Clark, March 2010. McCoy was appointed to the Senate by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Paul Martin, on March 24, 2005. She represented Alberta as a member of the Canadian Senators Group.

Initially a member of the Progressive Conservative caucus, a rump caucus of Tory senators who had refused to join the new Conservative Party of Canada in 2003, McCoy was ultimately the last Progressive Conservative in the chamber following the retirement of Senator Lowell Murray in 2011. She changed her designation to Independent PC in 2013 and then to non-affiliated in 2016, following the decision by the government of Justin Trudeau to make the Senate a non-partisan institution and appoint independent senators. In September 2016, she and 14 other non-affiliated senators formed the Independent Senators Group In December 2016, the Senate agreed to recognize the ISG and granted it funding, and also agreed that non-affiliated senators would be appointed to Senate committees in numbers proportionate to their numbers in the Senate.

On November 4, 2019, she joined the Canadian Senators Group.

After being appointed to the Senate, McCoy was an influential voice for the role of the individual senator, for Senate reform, for an inclusive federation and the role of Alberta in Canada. McCoy was one of the first members of the Senate of Canada to blog and tweet on her experiences in Ottawa and the political issues of the day. A feature article on McCoy in Maclean's called her a "symbol of defiance" as one of only two Progressive Conservative senators then remaining in federal politics and someone who "defines herself as socially progressive and fiscally conservative". She died on December 29, 2020, in Ottawa.