Jean Casselman Wadds

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Jean Casselman Wadds
Arza Clair Casselman
Succeeded byRiding abolished
Personal details
Born
Jean Rowe

(1920-09-16)September 16, 1920
Newton Robinson, Ontario, Canada
DiedNovember 25, 2011(2011-11-25) (aged 91)
Prescott, Ontario, Canada
Political partyProgressive Conservative
Spouses
Arza Clair Casselman
​
​
(m. 1946; died 1958)​
Robert Wadds
​
(divorced)​
RelationsWilliam Earl Rowe (father)
PortfolioParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Health and Welfare (1962–1963)

Jean Casselman Wadds,

Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1983, playing a role in the government of Pierre Trudeau's negotiations with the British government of Margaret Thatcher in Trudeau's successful effort to patriate the Canadian Constitution in 1982.[1]

Early life and political career

Wadds was born in 1920 in

Newton Robinson, Ontario. She was the daughter of William Earl Rowe; Wadds and Rowe are, to date, the only father and daughter to sit as MPs
in the same session of Parliament.

In 1946, she married

Arza Clair Casselman, who represented Grenville—Dundas in the House of Commons until his death in 1958, and she was elected to the same seat later that year. She married stockbroker Robert Wadds in the 1960s; their marriage ended in divorce after a decade.[1]

Wadds served as parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Health and Welfare in 1962 and 1963. She was the first woman to serve as a parliamentary secretary in the Canadian government.

She was defeated in the 1968 federal election in the redistributed riding of Grenville—Carleton but remained politically active, serving from 1971 to 1975 as national secretary of the Progressive Conservative party. She served on the Ontario Municipal Board in the late 1970s.[1]

High Commissioner to the United Kingdom

In 1979, Wadds was appointed Canada's

High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. She served in this capacity until 1983. During this time, the Canadian Constitution was patriated. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
was to say of her:

"I always said it was thanks to three women that we were eventually able to reform our Constitution.

The Queen, who was favourable, Margaret Thatcher, who undertook to do everything that our Parliament asked of her, and Jean Wadds, who represented the interests of Canada so well in London."[2]

In 1982, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for carrying "out her duties with great competence and conscientiousness, particularly during the period of the patriation of the Constitution".[3]

Macdonald Commission and later career

Returning to Canada in 1983, she was appointed one of 13 commissioners on the

Royal Commission's recommendations that Canada negotiate a free trade agreement with the United States were ultimately taken up by the government of Brian Mulroney, resulting in the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement of 1988.[1]

She subsequently served on a number of corporate boards including

Canadian Pacific and Royal Trust.[1]

Casselman Wadds received honorary doctorates from the

St. Thomas University.[1]

On November 25, 2011, Wadds died at the age of 91.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Canadian High Commissioner helped bring Constitution home". Globe and Mail. 23 December 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  2. ISBN 0-7710-8588-5
    . Retrieved 12 October 2008. memoirs trudeau.
  3. ^ Governor General of Canada - Honours
  4. ^ "Political pioneer Jean Wadds of Prescott dies". The Recorder and Times. 28 November 2011. Archived from the original on 30 November 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2011.

External links

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