Michelle Dockrill

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Michelle Dockrill is a former Canadian Member of Parliament, representing the riding of Bras d'Or, Cape Breton Island from 1997 to 2000.

A member of the Nova Scotia Government Employee's Union and a receptionist at a Cape Breton health care facility, Dockrill was nominated to run for the Canadian New Democratic Party in the federal election called for June 2, 1997. Running against then-Health Minister David Dingwall, perceived as the most powerful Nova Scotian figure in the government of then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. With the NDP having only won 5% of the vote in 1993, Dockrill, nominated after the election had already been called, was not taken seriously by Dingwall's Liberals or the NDP, who initially devoted few resources to her campaign.

Dingwall, MP for the area since 1980, was seen as unable or unwilling to use his vast patronage powers to improve living conditions in his impoverished riding. Changes to laws governing unemployment insurance, restrictions on the fisheries, the slow destruction of the area's coal mining industry and problems with health care services all contributed to a growing sense that Dingwall was out of touch.

Dockrill ran an aggressive campaign, assisted by resources directed to the riding by then-Nova Scotia NDP Provincial Secretary Ron Cavalucci. Cavalucci sent his assistant to manage the campaign; he launched a series of ads accusing Dingwall of lying and implicating him in secret discussions to close the coal mines. Dingwall was seen to lose a CBC Radio debate with Dockrill and the Progressive Conservative candidate, appearing both ignorant of local issues and arrogant towards his opponents.

On election night Dockrill defeated Dingwall by more than 1400 votes, winning 47%, a massive swing and a humiliating defeat for the former cabinet minister.

In office however Dockrill was widely considered a weak MP and, although she worked tirelessly on the issue of the coal industry, the last Cape Breton mine was closed soon after her defeat in the election of November 2000, when she was defeated in a landslide by Liberal Rodger Cuzner. She achieved brief fame for being the first MP to bring her newborn baby into the House of Commons.

In 2004 Dockrill, who had returned to her previous position working in a health facility, ran for and lost the NDP nomination to newcomer Shirley Hartery, who went on to be defeated by Cuzner in the June election.