By Andrew Macdonald
Brian MacLeod, the Top Tory and nursing home tycoon, who died at Christmas 2-23 and his late spouse Irene MacLeod, the legendary vote-getting machine and Mulroney insider, rest in peace at their eternal resting place in a tiny and formerly long-abandoned cemetery in Antigonish that dates to the 1840s.
The MacLeods’ eternal resting mates include the one and only Joe Stewart, and also the founder of Jimtown Beach, established circa 1920s, Captain Jim McDonald. Prior to Pizza Joe Stewart’s burial at Paddy’s Hollow in Antigonish County in 2016, the cemetery last saw a burial in the 1960s.
Stewart reclaimed the long-abandoned graveyard in his last few years of his life on the globe. Irene MacLeod died in 2020. Here is her Notebook news obit:
Irene MacLeod Was A Vote-Getting Machine – A Mulroney Insider, Dies At 60
By Andrew Macdonald
Sad news in 2020 came out of Antigonish when renowned Tory election organizer Irene MacLeod passed on, at age 60.
Brian and Irene MacLeod’s grave at an historic Antigonish County cemetery. (The Notebook).
Spouse of nursing home tycoon Brian MacLeod, and mother of four adult children, Irene was considered the best electioneer vote-getter in the PC and Conservative parties in this region.
She battled brain cancer in 2019-2020, remaining engaged in life and politics ,despite her illness she attended the 2020 Nova Scotia PC AGM, in Halifax.
Irene MacLeod died at age 60 in 2020. She and her spouse Brian MacLeod were regular dinner guests when Brian Mulroney occupied 24 Sussex Drive as prime minister.
Raised in Cape Breton, a PC riding association on the island issued a bulletin to its party members after Irene died, a sign that Irene was revered in Tory ranks in the province and the region.
Irene MacLeod’s tombstone. (The Notebook).
She cut her teeth in Tory politics in the mid-1980s and became president of the national PC Youth wing in 1986. As such, she and Brian were regular dinner guests at 24 Sussex Drive, during the Brian & Mila Mulroney era. Both Irene and Brian were featured in political tomes about the Mulroney era, including one book by renowned former political journalist Stevie Cameron.
A poem written by Brian and Irene’s son, William, is on the couple’s tombstone. (The Notebook).
She was survived by her husband, Brian, who founded the MacLeod Group in the mid-1980s, a nursing home chain in rural Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. Irene was a major driving force for the chain, which now has 1,000 employees, significantly in rural communities.
She was the mother of William, Brian Douglas (Catherine), Sheumais (Taylor), and Jermal (Myrie). Two of her sons are noted musicians. Jermal is a top political staffer to current Antigonish MLA and tour de force Health minister Michelle Thompson.
Irene MacLeod has been described as the best Tory organizer in Nova Scotia and the region.
“Irene was a force of unconditional love, energy, and kindness. She was a strong, accomplished woman with a life-long passion for helping and guiding others,” read her obituary.
A tombstone at the cemetery where Brian and Irene MacLeod are buried. (The Notebook).
“Nobody ever had to wonder what Irene thought – she told you. With disarming honesty came a relentless push to make all around her better. She was a tireless community volunteer, a generous donor, a business partner, and leader of many community causes. More important to Irene, was her good fortune to be able to discreetly help people she barely knew when she saw a need,” her memorial added.
Brian and Irene MacLeod are buried in this historic Antigonish County cemetery, resting eternally beside the late Joe Stewart. (The Notebook).
Her obit details her political Tory warrior experience, noting she was “a formidable political strategist and organizer.” Her mid-1980s foray into politics led to many political roles as campaign manager for provincial and federal candidates.
“Like all who knew her, the winning politicians heard Irene’s views whether they wanted to or not.”
A narrow lane leads to the cemetery where Joe Stewart and Irene and Brian MacLeod are buried. (The Notebook).
One candidate she backed early on was Rodney MacDonald, in 2006. The story goes, she was attending an event in Mabou and suggested to MacDonald he run for Tory premier in the race which chose John Hamm’s successor. With Irene’s backing and support, MacDonald ended up defeating a big businessman, Bill Black and served as premier from 2005 to 2009.
Pizza Joe Stewart’s grave is adjacent to the tombstones of Brian and Irene MacLeod. (The Notebook).
While the Tory party no longer has Irene devising winning campaign strategies, she has taught a legion of other backroom operators.
Mulroney Insiders Brian & Irene MacLeod. MacLeod Group photo
While she was ill in 2019 and unable to organize during the federal election, one of her students that she mentored was Paula Henderson, who that year had been tasked with getting Conservative standard-bearer Scott Armstrong elected in the federal riding of Cumberland-Colchester. Armstrong lost the race to Liberal Lenore Zann.
Henderson, a caucus toiler with the provincial Progressive Conservatives, has been schooled in the great art of electioneering by the one and only Irene MacLeod.
Irene served as Armstrong’s 2015 campaign manager, the election he lost to Tory-turned-Liberal Bill Casey.
Irene, says Armstrong, schooled Henderson in the art of politics in 2015, when Henderson was the deputy campaign manager for the Tories in Cumberland Colchester that year.
“One of the things we did in 2015, Irene actually trained Paula when she was deputy campaign manager. And a couple of other people were trained by Irene, that was always the plan.”
Irene and Brian have been involved in the Nova Scotia Tory party since 1983 when Brian Mulroney won the federal PC leadership.
Back in 1992, while I worked at the Port Hawkesbury newsweekly The Scotia Sun, I attended the MacLeod home in Antigonish, on a news assignment.
Irene & Brian MacLeod in 1983 backed a young Brian Mulroney as federal PC leader and became regular dinner guests at 24 Sussex Drive when Mulroney was prime minister. This picture of Mulroney and wife Mila is on display at Mulroney Hall at St. FX.
That year, I filed a news story that Brian MacLeod was considering running for Nova Scotia Tory leader to replace then-retired premier John Buchanan. Brian opted not to run, and the race was won by Don Cameron. At the same time, Frank Magazine called Brian a “Woolco department store Tory.”
MacLeod would later become the top politico overseeing the fundraising of the PC party, as a bagman.
Irene, described by PC stalwarts, as the “best political organizer the Tories have”, once ran for the mayoralty race in Antigonish, in 2016. She finished last. Had she, instead, sought a town council seat she would have been a shoo-in.
In a town where you need at least three generations of family buried at St. Ninian’s Cemetery, the MacLeods were very active in the community. Both Irene and Brian grew up in Cape Breton.
They were big financial backers of the Antigonish Highland Games and generously supported Theatre Antigonish. Irene was also dedicated to local autism activities.
“Her commitment to serving her community was unmatched”, reads her obit. “She volunteered for the Family and Child Welfare Board, Antigonish Highland Society, Antigonish Area Partnership, Autism Nova Scotia, L’Arche Antigonish, Festival Antigonish, Antigonish Women’s Resource Center, Naomi Society and the Heat Poverty Action Coalition the Strait Area Early Childhood Intervention Society and St. James United Church.”
Her extensive community involvement once had her recognized provincially and nationally when she was awarded the Progress Club’s Women of Excellence Award, Sobey’s Green Jacket for Advocacy for Autism, and achieved the highest rank for a female officer in cadets, her obit reads.
“Later she served on the board of directors of the Royal Military College, in the limestone city of Kingston in eastern Ontario.
The MacLeods have a very talented young son, Sheumais MacLeod approaching 30, who is a musician. He has produced a CD, Lost Without You, a compilation of his own songs and classic hits. His website is Sheumaismacleod.ca, and he is also on YouTube.
Irene’s obit notes her involvement with the family business, the nursing home chain.
“Quietly, Irene and Brian built the MacLeod Group into one of the rural Maritimes’ largest nursing home operations with over 600 residents in care and 1000 employees.
The week Irene died, the provincial government announced its first new nursing build during its seven-year tenure in power would be built by MacLeod Group in Mahone Bay. The chain will construct a new 96-bed home. Two designated care floors will each have three wings, comprised of 16 private rooms with private washrooms. Each wing will be self-contained and have its own dining, activities and dedicated staff.
The MacLeod Group’s expansion plans in recent years have been through the acquisition of existing nursing homes.
In 2019, Irenee and Brian bought a nursing home in Woodstock, near the New Brunswick-Maine border. It is known as Riverside Court Retirement Home.
