Dorothy Dobbie
{{Short description|Canadian politician}}
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{{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{BLP sources|date=March 2011}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Dorothy Dobbie
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|MP|CM|size=100%}}
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| office = Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South
| term_start = 21 November 1988
| term_end = 24 October 1993
| predecessor = constituency established
| successor = Reg Alcock
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1945|01|05}}
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| nationality = Canadian
| party = Progressive Conservative
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| children = Shauna Dobbie
| residence = Winnipeg
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| occupation = publisher, businesswoman
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| portfolio = Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (1989–1991)
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs/Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of State (Agriculture) (1991–1993)
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment (1993)
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Dorothy Ina Elgiva Dobbie {{post-nominals|country=CAN|CM}} (born 5 January 1945) is a Canadian businesswoman and former politician. She served in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 1993, as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.{{Cite web |title=Dorothy I. Dobbie |url=https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/People/Profile?personId=9996 |access-date=12 March 2022 |website=PARLIAMENT OF CANADA |archive-date=16 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210616221811/https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/People/Profile?personId=9996 |url-status=live}}
Dobbie was a publisher before entering political life, and was a founder of Association Publications Ltd. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. In 1983, she was named Outstanding Business Citizen of the Year by the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce.
In 2012, Dobbie was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contributions and achievements as a Canadian citizen.{{Cite web |last1=The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General |title=The Governor General of Canada |url=http://www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=216914&t=13&ln=Dobbie |access-date=18 May 2017 |language=en |archive-date=12 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220312224454/https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last=Goldsborough |first=Gordon |title=Manitoba Recipients of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal |url=http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/diamondjubileemedal.shtml#D |access-date=18 May 2017 |website=www.mhs.mb.ca |archive-date=23 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170723175847/http://mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/diamondjubileemedal.shtml#D |url-status=live}}
Politics
Dobbie was elected to the House of Commons in the 1988 election, defeating Liberal candidate Allan Kaufman by 715 votes to win the federal riding of Winnipeg South, re-created by the federal electoral boundary redistribution of 1987.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes2004/riding/226/ |title=CBC - Canada Votes 2004 |website=www.cbc.ca |access-date=18 May 2017 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924141019/http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes2004/riding/226/ |url-status=live}} The Progressive Conservatives won a majority government in the election, and Dobbie entered parliament as a government backbencher.
She served as parliamentary secretary to seven different ministers between 1989 and 1993, and was a member of fifteen committees.{{Cite web |url=https://lop.parl.ca/ParlInfo/Files/Parliamentarian.aspx?Item=EB86F1C3-C19E-4FA2-AC61-955072B063BA&Language=E&Section=ALL |title=PARLINFO - Parliamentarian File - Complete File - DOBBIE, Dorothy I. |access-date=18 May 2017 |archive-date=29 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170529054306/https://lop.parl.ca/ParlInfo/Files/Parliamentarian.aspx?Item=eb86f1c3-c19e-4fa2-ac61-955072b063ba&Language=E&Section=ALL |url-status=live}} Dobbie acted as Co-Chair, alongside Claude Castonguay, on the Special Joint Committee on a Renewed Canada, and the committee's recommendations on constitutional reform later formed the basis of the government's 1992 Charlottetown Accord, which was defeated in a national referendum.{{Cite news |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/constitutional-history/ |title=Constitutional History |last=McConnell |first=W.H. |work=The Canadian Encyclopedia |access-date=18 May 2017 |language=en |archive-date=18 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170518104617/http://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/constitutional-history/ |url-status=live}}
Dobbie supported Jean Charest's bid to succeed Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as Progressive Conservative leader in 1993 (Winnipeg Free Press, 11 June 1993), and retained her own nomination for the next federal election over a challenge from Charles Maximilian (Winnipeg Free Press, 16 March 1993).
The PC Party was resoundingly defeated in the 1993 election, losing all but two of its parliamentary seats. Dobbie lost her candidate's deposit, receiving 6,432 votes (12.29%) for a third-place finish against Liberal Reg Alcock. During the campaign, she accused the rival Reform Party of being controlled by Christian fundamentalists and criticized her own party for running advertisements that mocked Liberal leader Jean Chrétien's facial deformity (Winnipeg Free Press, 17 October 1993). She also called for the abolition of the Senate of Canada (Winnipeg Free Press, 18 July 1993).
After Charest's resignation as Progressive Conservative Party leader in 1998, she endorsed former prime minister Joe Clark in his successful bid to succeed him (Toronto Star, 29 June 1998).
Dobbie opposed the Progressive Conservative Party's merger with the Canadian Alliance in 2003, citing concern over unclear agendas of the new party, and she later endorsed Glen Murray, the former mayor of Winnipeg who ran as a Liberal candidate in the 2004 federal election in Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia.{{Cite news |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/former-manitoba-pcs-back-liberals-1.499354 |title=Former Manitoba PCs back Liberals |work=CBC News |access-date=18 May 2017 |language=en |archive-date=12 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220312224507/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/former-manitoba-pcs-back-liberals-1.499354 |url-status=live}} When Sinclair Stevens, another former Progressive Conservative MP, launched an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit to try to block the merger, Dobbie was one of eleven other party members who openly backed the Affidavit.http://www.davidorchard.com/online/PDF_files/factum-stevens-20040311.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308064210/http://www.davidorchard.com/online/PDF_files/factum-stevens-20040311.pdf |date=8 March 2016 }} www.davidorchard.com. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
Post-political work
Dobbie helped to found Pegasus Publications Inc. in 1996, and still serves as its president. She is now the publisher of Manitoba Gardener, Ontario Gardener and Alberta Gardener magazines, and has written several articles on gardening. With her daughter, Shauna Dobbie, she has written The Book of 10 Neat Things, a book of horticultural advice which has been published in at least two editions.{{cite news |last1=Cullen |first1=Mark |last2=Cullen |first2=Ben |title=This is the stuff you didn't realize you needed to know about gardening |url=https://www.nsnews.com/living/this-is-the-stuff-you-didnt-realize-you-needed-to-know-about-gardening-3102118 |access-date=20 October 2024 |work=North Shore News |date=20 June 2019}}
In 1997, Dobbie was appointed to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, Prairie Region.[http://www.cbsc.ca/english/cbscdocs/prs/1997/9709.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050925111259/http://www.cbsc.ca/english/cbscdocs/prs/1997/9709.htm|date=25 September 2005}}
In 2004, Dobbie was appointed a board member of Tree Canada.{{Cite journal |title=Personals / Carrière et emploi |journal=The Forestry Chronicle |year=2004 |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=338–340 |doi=10.5558/tfc80338-3 |doi-access=free}} After she served as chair from 2008 to 2011, a Tree Canada news release announced that Dobbie was stepping down from the position.{{Cite web |url=https://treecanada.ca/en/news-events/archives/2011/ |title=Tree Canada :: 2011 News Releases |last=Studio |first=Tonik Web |website=Tree Canada |language=en |access-date=18 May 2017 |archive-date=3 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170203153357/https://treecanada.ca/en/news-events/archives/2011/ |url-status=live}}
Electoral history
{{1993 Canadian federal election/Winnipeg South}}
{{1988 Canadian federal election/Winnipeg South}}
References
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External links
- {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=9996}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dobbie, Dorothy}}
Category:20th-century Canadian women politicians
Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada
Category:Businesspeople from Winnipeg
Category:Canadian garden writers
Category:Canadian magazine publishers (people)
Category:Canadian women magazine editors
Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Manitoba
Category:Members of the Order of Canada
Category:Politicians from Winnipeg
Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs