By Andrew Macdonald
Jane Cordy has retired from the Senate of Canada, at age 74, one year before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
The Cape Breton native, and retired educator in Dartmouth, was appointed to the Senate in 2000 by then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
Cordy’s Senate departure and the upcoming retirement of Stephen Greene means two vacancies in the upper chamber for Nova Scotia representatives. Senate appointments are made by the prime minister.
“Big loss of institutional memory for the Senate,” says Liberal insider and political panel member Greg MacEachern, a Port Hawkesbury native now living in Ottawa.
“I worked with her during the 1997 Liberal provincial leadership. I’m a huge fan,” adds MacEachern.
That leadership convention was won by Russell MacLellan, who became Nova Scotia’s premier.
“Jane was co-chair of the convention and I was co-chair of the premises — the ‘House’ at the World Trade & Convention Centre in Halifax,” said MacEachern,
Greg MacEachern is a political commentator on CBC Friday night program, Power & Politics. He is pictured third from the left, sitting beside Conservative pundit Fred Delorey. Both are graduates of St. FX University. CBC image
“She is just a terrific person, whip-smart with a great political acumen. The highest quality compliment my parents would give would be that they said, in that very Nova Scotian way, ‘a very fine person’,” MacEachern tells The Macdonald Notebook.
In 1997, MacEachern was a newbie political aide, and a leadership contestant took exception to the leadership convention rules set by Cordy and MacEachern.
“At one point, one of the leadership contestants called us elites.” That floored MacEachern who had only been on the Liberal job for six months that year.
“I was a poor kid just out of St. Francis Xavier University, having this (criticism) thrown at me. I was kind of bothered by it, and Jane grabbed me by the arm and told me her dad was a security guard at Sydney Steel. ‘If he was alive to know his daughter was being called an elitist, he would have been dancing a jig”, Cordy told MacEachern.
Jane Cordy, retired senator from Dartmouth. Nov. 17th, 2024 (Contributed).
Cordy had been the longest serving current member of the Senate.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took away Liberal partisan roles in the Senate, and Cordy was leader of the Progressive Senate Group. She had been deputy chair of the Senate’s standing committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology and was a member of the standing committees on Fisheries and Oceans as well as on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament.
Born in Sydney, she is a graduate of the Nova Scotia Teachers College and Mount St. Vincent University. She taught elementary school for 30 years in Sydney, New Glasgow and the Halifax Regional Municipality until appointed to the Senate by Chretien on June 9, 2000.
Cordy has served as vice-chair of the Halifax-Dartmouth Port Development Commission and was also the chair of the board of referees for employment insurance. She also served on the board of Phoenix House for Youth, was a board member of Mount Saint Vincent University and served on Prime Minister Chrétien’s task force on seniors.
As past chair of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association, Sen. Cordy served as an international vice president of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly representing North America on the executive.
An active member of the Canada-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group, Cordy had served as co-chair of the Canada-US IPG Great Lakes St. Lawrence Sub-Group which focuses on protecting the economic, environmental, and social aspects of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence, adds her biography.
“She has a particular interest in issues related to mental health, seniors and aging, early education and children. As a member of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, she participated in the study of issues relating to mental health, mental illness and addictions which culminated in the comprehensive report ‘Out of the Shadows at Last’. She also served as a member of the Special Senate Committee on Aging, which studied the implications of an aging society in Canada.
Cordy lives in Dartmouth with her husband Bob. They have two adult children, Alison and Michelle, and four grandchildren.
Cordy gave a farewell address to the Senate on Nov 5.
“Honourable senators, thank you very much. This is the tough part. I think it was more fun listening,” she said of tributes from her Senate colleagues. “Thank you all so much. It makes my heart sing today to listen to everybody.
“We can be on the far Right or the far Left, or most of us are somewhere in between. Please stick with your political beliefs, but remember that we can still be friends at the end of the day, or we can have golf games or a drink after a golf game. I think that’s really important because sometimes we become so intense about what our beliefs are that we forget that it is just a political belief. What makes Canada best is when we come together and we compromise and do what is best for our country.
“Senators, I want to thank you so much for your kind words. I will read them over and over again, and I will probably send them to people to read because they have really touched my heart. Thank you for your best wishes since I gave notice that I would be taking early retirement, although I think very few places would consider the age of 74 to be an early retirement,” she said.
“I was the 848th senator to be appointed to this chamber. Thank you, Sen. Varone, for that bit of trivia. If you want to know your number, just check with him. He has all of us down on his list. That number since Confederation — which is only slightly over a thousand senators appointed since Confederation — should make us all understand just how fortunate we are to have been chosen by our respective prime ministers to serve in this chamber.
“I want to begin by paying tribute and saying a huge thank you to so many who have made our jobs easier. Our Parliamentary Protective Service personnel always work to keep us safe. They are professionals, and they always remain calm. I much appreciated their calmness and efficiency a few weeks ago. For those of us who were on Parliament Hill when shots were fired, you understand the bravery and dedication of our protective staff in a whole different way.
“Senators, my first staffer was Colette Favreau, who came out of retirement to help me set up my office. Matt Ryan from Cape Breton joined us shortly after, and he has been with me for over 20 years. Susanna Doherty from Newfoundland came to work with me after her graduation from the University of Ottawa 14 years ago. If you pass by her office, you might hear Susanna humming or singing. Her degree is in music, and she is an opera singer. Matt and Susanna have been an incredible team, working long hours when needed and offering suggestions when asked — and sometimes when they were not asked.
“We worked really hard in our office, but we laughed hard as well. I will miss you both, and I thank you for being great members of the dream team.”
Jane Cordy at age 74 has retired from the Senate of Canada, a year before the mandatory retirement age of 75. She was appointed in 2000 by PM Jean Chretien and had been the longest current Senator serving in the Red Chamber.
