Mary Collins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other persons named Mary Collins, see Mary Collins (disambiguation).

Mary Collins PC (born September 26, 1940) is a former Canadian politician.

She was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1984 federal election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for Capilano, British Columbia.

She retained her seat in the 1988 federal election for the redistributed riding of Capilano—Howe Sound. She was appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as Associate Minister of National Defence from 1989 to 1993. She also served as Minister responsible for the Status of Women from 1990 to 1993.

In January 1993, she was shuffled to the position of Minister of Western Economic Diversification and Minister of State for the environment.

When Kim Campbell succeeded Mulroney as PC leader and prime minister in June, 1993, she promoted Collins to the positions of Minister of National Health and Welfare and Minister of Amateur Sport.

Her career ended that fall with the defeat of the Campbell government and the loss of her own parliamentary seat in the 1993 federal election.

Since leaving politics, Collins has been active as honorary co-chair of the women's school at the Canadian Women Voters Congress, working on a health reform project in Russia as a consultant in health management, and promoting women's political development in Vietnam and Ukraine. She also teaches at Royal Roads University in British Columbia.