In memory of Flora MacDonald

Oxfam Canada was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Flora MacDonald, a great friend and an inspiring example of women’s leadership in Canada.
 
"After her electoral defeat in 1988, Flora looked for new opportunities to bring her energy, politics and profile to the global struggle for social justice," said Jim McKinnon, Oxfam’s program manager for Southern Africa at the time.  
 
"She quickly felt at home at Oxfam, where our work with partners on social change is deeply rooted in an understanding and critique of power and politics.
 
Flora brought her Canadian political experience to bear in the early 1990s when she participated in a series of Oxfam missions in southern Africa – both Namibia and South Africa, – where she played a key role as a pre-election observer assessing these new democracies in action.  
 
Oxfam staff in the field observed that not only was Flora a resolute champion for women’s rights and political participation, she was also a hardy traveler undeterred by the roughest of roads or longest of journeys."