To her fans, Grace McCarthy was “Amazing Grace,” the indefatigable, flame-haired grande dame of B.C.’s Social Credit Party, who revived the party after its defeat by the New Democrats in 1972.
She was never premier, but over three decades, she personified Socred politics as much as the Bennetts of Kelowna and Bill Vander Zalm.
McCarthy died Wednesday at the age of 89 following a lengthy battle with a brain tumour.
Dubbed the “ultimate Socred,” McCarthy personified the party’s free-enterprise religion through the 1970s and 1980s.
“It’s the passing of an era,” said David Mitchell, an historian, former MLA and author of W.A.C. Bennett and the Rise of British Columbia.
“She, as an iconic political figure in British Columbia, really epitomized the energetic boosterism that came to be known around the mid-1980s, leading up to Expo 86 in Vancouver.”
Mitchell said McCarthy, the first female deputy premier in Canada, “was perennially optimistic and positive and driving forward a pro-business agenda that sought to brand Vancouver and British Columbia as important places not only in Canada, but in the world.”
Her home answering machine message advised callers to “have a great British Columbia day.”
But her constant smile belied the tough political smarts and take-no-prisoners attitude that helped McCarthy and her party survive and prosper in governing B.C. In the legislature in 1985, New Democrat MLA Gary Lauk called her a “Polyanna,” “Champagne Charlotte” and “Marie Antoinette” all in one sentence.
When she was in charge of the Tourism Ministry, McCarthy promoted the successful “smile” and “super-natural British Columbia” campaigns. She was a key early booster of Expo 86 and the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre. She oversaw the building of SkyTrain.
She even put the lights on the Lions Gate Bridge.
“People in Vancouver today, when they look at the Lions Gate Bridge which is lit up at nighttime, they may not remember that that was called ‘Gracie’s Necklace’ when it was first lit up, because that was part of her boosterism for Vancouver,” Mitchell said. “She was a promoter extraordinaire and it’s a sad day in British Columbia, I think across all party lines, when we have to speak of Grace McCarthy in the past.”
She ran unsuccessfully for the party leadership twice, finally becoming leader in 1993. But her timing was wrong. She had inherited a party that had been consigned to the political fringe by Vander Zalm’s unpopularity.
Vander Zalm — who often found himself at odds with McCarthy over the party’s direction — called McCarthy an icon of B.C. politics, an effective politician and an aggressive worker. “She had her own ideas and opinions and she knew where she wanted to go. If she decided to go some place, not too many people wanted to get in the way.” In 1986, he said, it was McCarthy who convinced him to run for party leadership, which he won, even though she was in the race, too.
Brian Smith, a former Oak Bay mayor who was elected MLA in 1979 and later appointed attorney general, said he became close to McCarthy during the Vander Zalm era, when they both resigned from his cabinet. “We both believed the Social Credit government would be doomed under his hand, because it was too erratic,” Smith said.
The response to the move wasn’t universally positive. “People were particularly nasty to Grace. She got more of it than I did and I know it bothered her because she was an intensely loyal individual.”
Smith said one of McCarthy’s greatest legacies was her contributions to B.C. tourism, especially her role in advocating for Expo 86 — a risky investment that helped turn Vancouver into a world-class city, he said.
There were no rainy days, only sunny days, for McCarthy, he said. And no bad scenarios — only bad scenarios that could be turned into good ones.
With an early career as a florist, she saw flowers brightening people’s lives and Smith said she brought the same spirit to politics.
“I think that she sort of saw herself as bringing sunshine to public life,” he said. “She was kind of like British Columbia’s hostess.”
Premier Christy Clark said in a statement that she was “deeply saddened” by McCarthy’s passing. “At a time when female leaders were hard to find in Canadian politics, Grace McCarthy was an agent of change,” said Clark. “When she was first elected, women could not even apply for mortgages without a male guarantor — until she worked with the provincial and federal governments to fix it.”
Grace Mary Winterbottom was born on
Oct. 14, 1927, in Vancouver. Her father sold shoes, and her mother kept house. In the summer, she would swim in Trout Lake. Today, the SkyTrain thunders past her old home.
She worked part-time in a flower shop during high school and, armed with a $50 war bond, opened her own floral shop at age 17 in 1944.
Four years later, she married Raymond McCarthy. Over the years she and her husband built the little shop into Grayce Florists, a thriving chain they sold in the mid-1970s. (Her sister came up with the ‘y’ in Grace, to make it “more fancy,” McCarthy later recalled.) She and her husband had two children.
The story of McCarthy’s rags-to-riches business success symbolized the Socred gospel that McCarthy believed in and preached — that individuals could rise in society through their own efforts. After all, she did.
In 1960, McCarthy was florist of the year. A year later she was on the park board, after being asked to run when a commissioner died. She won election, and stayed on the park board until she switched to provincial politics in 1966.
W.A.C. Bennett recruited McCarthy himself and promoted her to minister without portfolio within three months of her election. “The minister without,” as she became known, held the position for six years, handing out government cheques, promoting low-income housing and speaking up for the mentally handicapped and pensioners.
Her first election defeat came in 1972, when the NDP swept to power.
Many pundits predicted that Social Credit was finished. McCarthy disagreed and set out to prove the naysayers wrong. She was elected party president in 1973. W.A.C., as he headed into retirement, dubbed her “Queen Grace of the Social Credit party.”
“Queen Grace” took to the road, squeezing hands and eating rubber chicken throughout the province, as she steadily sold $1.25 party memberships. In 1975, the Socreds returned to power under W.A.C.’s son, Bill, and McCarthy was named minister of recreation and travel industry, provincial secretary and deputy premier.
A low point came in 1978 when McCarthy was accused of rigging boundaries of her Vancouver-Little Mountain electoral riding to include a Socred-dominated digit-shaped neighbourhood, which would become known as “Gracie’s Finger.” Her foes alleged that she had drafted the addition herself — a charge that she denied.
Her tenure as human resources minister was marred by controversy. She became the subject of several protests during 1984 and 1985 — including one by members of the clergy — over welfare cuts.
After Bill Bennett resigned as premier in 1986, McCarthy was one of several cabinet ministers who sought the leadership. Her candidacy folded when Brian Smith edged ahead of her on the third ballot at the convention. She was dropped from the race and refused to back Smith, giving Vander Zalm the eventual victory.
Vander Zalm appointed her economic development minister in his first cabinet after the 1986 election.
She oversaw the sale of the Expo lands to Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-Shing for
$150 million, a sum many critics said was far too low. The sale of the Expo lands also put her into conflict with Vander Zalm, who allegedly submitted a bid by a friend, businessman Peter Toigo, after bidding was closed.
McCarthy resigned from cabinet July 5, 1988, citing repeated interference by Vander Zalm in her ministry and power held by the premier’s principal secretary, David Poole, whom McCarthy disliked intensely.
After Vander Zalm was forced to resign over conflict of interest allegations, McCarthy again sought the leadership. She lost by
60 votes to premier Rita Johnston in a rancorous convention in 1991.
After sitting out the 1991 election, McCarthy jumped back into the ring in 1993 and finally won the party leadership. But her last-ditch attempt to resurrect the Socreds was terminated by a loss in a Matsqui byelection.
After her exit from politics, McCarthy found other outlets for her fabled energy. After her granddaughter was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, McCarthy helped establish the C.H.I.L.D. Foundation, raising funds for research to help children with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
