Muriel Smith

Muriel Ann Smith, OC ( Lipsey; May 9, 1930) is a Manitoba politician. She ran for the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba in 1979, and subsequently served in the cabinet of NDP Premier Howard Pawley.

Smith is the daughter of George Cherry Lipsey and Mary MacDonald, at Britannia Beach, British Columbia, and was educated at the University of Manitoba and the Oxford Institute of Education, in Oxford, England. In 1952, she married Gordon Murray Rhodes Smith, son of former Manitoba Liberal politician Charles Rhodes Smith.

She worked as a counsellor, served on the Human Rights Commission of Manitoba from 1974 to 1978 and the Manitoba Action Centre on the Status of Women from 1975 to 1976. She was also President of the Manitoba NDP from 1975 to 1977.

She first ran for the provincial legislature in the 1973 provincial election, in the upscale Winnipeg riding of River Heights. She placed third, with Progressive Conservative leader Sidney Spivak winning the riding and future Liberal leader Charles Huband finishing second. Smith ran in Crescentwood in the 1977 election, losing to Progressive Conservative Warren Steen by 72 votes.

Smith was a representative of the NDP's left wing in the 1979 leadership race. Her supporters included supporters of "the Waffle" (a left-leaning group within the NDP) and many leading members of Manitoba's feminist community. Smith's campaign suffered a serious setback when she failed to receive the NDP nomination for a by-election in the riding of Fort Rouge. Notwithstanding, she finished a credible second place at the convention, losing to Howard Pawley.

She was elected to the Manitoba legislature for the first time in the 1981 election, representing the riding of Osborne. She joined cabinet on November 30, 1981, serving as Deputy Premier and Minister of Economic Development and Tourism. That same year she also was a recipient of the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Person's Case.