Kim Campbell becomes Canada’s first female Prime Minister

June 25, 2017

The Right Honourable Kim Campbell. Simon Fraser University – University Communications

1993

Lawyer Avril Phaedra Douglas “Kim” Campbell had served in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government as the minister of the Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Justice, and National Defence departments before successfully seeking the leadership of the Conservatives. Campbell thus became Canada’s first female prime minister, on June 25, 1993, upon Mulroney’s retirement. She lost the ensuing federal election, with the Conservatives winning only two seats, in one of the worst political defeats in Canadian history.

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