Judy LaMarsh

Julia Verlyn LaMarsh (December 20, 1924 – October 27, 1980) was a Canadian politician, lawyer, author and broadcaster. In 1963, she became the second woman to serve as a federal Cabinet minister. Under Prime Minister Lester Pearson's minority governments of the middle and late 1960s, she helped push through the legislation that created the Canada Pension Plan and Medicare. As Secretary of State, she was in charge of Canada's Centennial celebrations in 1967. After leaving politics in 1968, she wrote three books, and had her own radio show on CBC Radio. She was stricken with pancreatic cancer in 1979 and was given the Order of Canada at her hospital bed. She died a few days short of the 20th anniversary of her first political election victory, in 1980.

Early life

LaMarsh was born December 20, 1924, in Chatham, Ontario. Of French and English descent, she was raised in Niagara Falls. LaMarsh worked with the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers in Halifax and then, after studying Japanese in Vancouver, served as a Japanese translator in Intelligence with Japanese-Canadian soldiers.

After the war, she attended the University of Toronto's Victoria College and Osgoode Hall, where she was trained as a lawyer, graduating in 1950. She was called to the Bar of Ontario, and joined her father's law practice in Niagara Falls.

Her period as Minister of National Health and Welfare coincided with the introduction of the Canada Pension Plan and the drafting of what was to become Canada's Medicare system. On June 17, 1963, she rose to speak on the floor of the House of Commons and declared: "There is scientific evidence that cigarette smoking is a contributory cause of lung cancer and that it may also be associated with chronic bronchitis and coronary heart disease." presented the Broadcasting Act of 1968 to Parliament, and served on the Royal Commission on the Status of Women.

In the 1968 Liberal leadership convention to choose a successor to Pearson, she supported Paul Hellyer. When it became clear after the first round of voting that Hellyer could not win, she urged him to drop off the ballot and throw his support to another candidate in order to stop Pierre Trudeau. Her words, uttered on the floor of the convention hall: "Paul, you've got to go to [Robert] Winters. Don't let that bastard win it, Paul – he isn't even a Liberal" were, unbeknownst to her, broadcast live over CBC Television. She retired from politics after Trudeau won the party's leadership.

Post-political career After politics, she returned to her work as a lawyer. She often took on civil rights cases, including the defense of the Brunswick Four in a prominent LGBT rights case in 1974.

She published her political autobiography, entitled Memoirs of a Bird in a Gilded Cage, in 1969, and the book sold very well. LaMarsh worked as a broadcaster including a part-time job with CBC Radio, hosting This Country in the Morning in 1974. From fall 1975 to spring 1976, she hosted her own show called Judy. It was broadcast weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to noon, nationally.

In April 1975, Ontario Premier William Davis chose her to head the Ontario government's Royal Commission on Violence in the Communications Industry. A few months later, just days away from the 20th anniversary of her first federal political victory, she died on October 27, 1980, aged 55. She had six female pallbearers including: Edith Druggan and Florence Rosberg, of Niagara Falls, broadcaster Barbara Frum, British Columbia Judge Nancy Morrison, lawyer Pamela Verill Walker, and Doris Anderson, president of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women.