Profiles of Alberta Women

Nancy MacBeth

Personal life

Nancy MacBeth (née Elliot) was born in Edmonton on December 29, 1948 to Dorothy and Dr. F. George Elliot. Originally from Prescott, Ontario, George and Dorothy moved to Alberta after they were presented with an opportunity to lease land on Lake Edith in Jasper, Alberta. Despite a lack of support from family in Ontario, George moved his family west and constructed a cabin on the site they had leased, working on it a bit at a time while also working as a physician. The cabin would become a second home for Nancy, a place she and her family would travel to every summer.¹

As a girl, Nancy grew up in the Glenora region of central Edmonton with her four siblings. Throughout her childhood she was involved in many activities, including competitive swimming, piano, and eventually student government. Her first taste of political life came in the early 1960s at Ross Sheppard High School, where she became involved in the school’s student government. It was also at this time, when Nancy was in Grade 10, that her father died suddenly of a heart attack.²

After high school, Nancy attended the University of Alberta. She had studied French in high school and continued her interest in languages with the pursuit of a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in French and minoring in Russian. After graduating in 1969, she further pursued her studies at the Université Laval in Quebec, where she studied French. After a year spent honing her French language skills, Nancy left the country for a year, traveling to Europe and North Africa with a friend. She returned to Canada in 1971, and soon after began what would be a decades long career in Albertan provincial politics.

Political career

Progressive Conservative tenure

When she was studying at the University of Alberta, Nancy spent some summers working for Bob Dowling, a pharmacy owner in Jasper. Dowling was a political man, getting involved with the Progressive Conservatives (PC) in the 1960s and eventually running for the party in 1971. He encouraged a young Nancy to get involved in politics herself, advice that Nancy took in 1972 when she found work with the Alberta government establishing a translation service for Alberta Culture.³

After a few years working with Alberta Culture, Nancy shifted to a position in the correspondence office of Peter Lougheed, the premier of Alberta, where she met and worked with Dick Johnston, a member of the legislative assembly (MLA). While working with Johnston Nancy left a strong impression, and was hired in 1976 to work for him as executive assistant in his capacity as minster of intergovernmental affairs. Nancy kept that position for six years before she moved on to serve as executive assistant to Lou Hyndman, MLA for the Glenora riding in Edmonton. Again, Nancy left a strong impression, and when he retired from politics in 1986 Hyndman encouraged her to replace him in the Glenora riding. Nancy did so, running and winning as the PC candidate for Edmonton-Glenora in May 1986 and again in 1989, holding the seat from 1986 to 1993. At that time, she ran as Nancy Betkowski, having married her first husband Stefan Betkowski.

As a PC MLA, Nancy held multiple positions, including minister of education from 1986 to 1988 and minister of health from 1988 to 1992. In both positions she defended the actions of and proposed policy for the PC party, addressing a range of topics including school bus systems, public and private schooling, treatments for survivors of child abuse, and drugs and alcohol. She also served on the Select Standing Committee for Public Affairs, Select Standing Committee on Legislative Offices, and Select Special Committee on Constitutional Reform.⁴

During her time in the PC party Nancy gained a reputation as a ‘Red Tory,’ taking stances that put her more towards the centre of the political spectrum than some of her counterparts. Reflecting on her time, Nancy said “I’d seen the more extreme element of the party start to gain influence . . . And I thought I could make a difference, be a moderating voice, work towards strengthening [the ministries of] Health and Education.”⁵ This viewpoint became central to her career in 1992, when she entered into the race for leadership of the PC party after the retirement of Don Getty. As the race progressed, Nancy emerged as one of the two frontrunners, alongside the more populist Ralph Klein. In the first ballot in November, it became clear that the race was down to Nancy and Klein, who finished one vote behind Nancy. By the end of the year, the other candidates had dropped out, leaving just Nancy and Klein to fight an election that grew increasingly personal and vicious.

While the first ballot and subsequent polls showed Nancy doing well, even outpolling Klein in his Calgary-Elbow constituency,⁶ Klein’s campaign took aggressive action to discredit Nancy in the eyes of rural voters. Among other things, Klein used Nancy’s support for regionalization of Alberta’s hospital system and a narrative that she would not support construction of a new rural hospital to distance her from rural Alberta. His strategy was ultimately successful, and Nancy lost the leadership race 46,245 to 31,722.7 After his victory, Klein offered Nancy a variety of relatively low-ranking positions in his cabinet, but she declined. She stayed on as MLA for Glenora until the 1993 election in June, at which point she resigned and left both politics and the PC party, ending a membership of more than twenty years.

“Alberta can be a place where public education is of the highest quality and available to all children, regardless of their special needs. We will build a comprehensive plan to address the known indicators that link poverty to education and health outcomes, not just talk about it. Let’s build a province where very child is valued and supported.”

Shelley Svidal, “Liberals debate achievement tests and split classrooms at convention,” ATA News 34, no. 17 (2000).

Alberta Liberals

When Nancy returned to Alberta politics in 1998, it was with the Alberta Liberal party, for which she ran as leader. She returned as Nancy MacBeth, having remarried to Hilliard MacBeth. Although she had considered running for the Liberal leadership in 1994, Nancy chose not to, knowing that it would have been a campaign driven by a desire to get even with Klein.⁸ Instead, by 1998 Nancy’s bid for leadership of the Liberals was driven by a belief that the PCs had departed from the political tradition which she had supported. At the time she argued that the Alberta Liberal Party better reflected the fiscally conservative and socially progressive balance that had been the tradition under former PC premier Peter Lougheed.⁹

After taking over former Liberal leader Grant Mitchell’s riding of Edmonton-McClung in the 1998 by-election, Nancy prepared to again face off against Klein, this time as opposition leader in the 2001 provincial election. In the interim, Nancy traveled across Alberta and spoke against the actions of the current PC government. On October 4, 1998 she attended the 200th anniversary of the explorer David Thompson’s arrival in the Lac La Biche area in northeast Alberta. At the event she was presented with a Métis sash by local Métis representatives, who sought to raise awareness about Métis contributions to Canada’s history. Nancy accepted the sash and acknowledged the importance of the Métis to Alberta’s history.¹⁰

“When I look back at that leadership race, as well as the Liberal leadership race, I certainly believe I had solid reasons for running in both. But in 1992 I just wasn’t chosen. That’s all. It was certainly one of the worst nights of my life, but now I can say it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It made me realize I couldn’t control my world just by the force of my will. It sounds strange, but it really brought me humility, and that’s been important to me.””

Curtis Cillespie, “The Contender,” Alberta Views, July 1, 2000.

Also in the late 90s, before the election, Nancy attended the Alberta Liberal Party’s annual convention and addressed those gathered as their new leader. In her address she tied existing labour unrest and overcrowded classrooms to the actions of the PC government. Speaking in support of teachers and other public employees who bore the brunt of government cuts, she said “These people feel now that it is their turn, and a new sense of determination can be seen in their bargaining groups … While we do not want to see costs spiral out of control, we respect the desire of many to recoup their lost ground and recover the cost-of-living increases. These people – nurses and teachers right here in Calgary as well as elsewhere – deserve our support.”¹¹

However, despite an appeal to those disaffected by the cuts of the Klein government, Nancy’s party only earned seven seats in the 2001 election, a loss of eleven. Nancy herself lost her seat in Edmonton-McClung to PC candidate Mark Norris, losing by eight percent of the vote (approximately 1000 votes). In part the loss was due to a sudden loosening of the purse strings by the Klein government, which reinvested in health care, cut taxes, and sent money directly to Albertans shortly before the election in attempt to lessen the blow of their cuts.¹² Three days after the election, on Thursday March 15, 2001 Nancy resigned as the Liberal party leader. The decision was one Nancy made herself, saying that “It’s the right thing for our party and it’s the right thing for me.”¹³

In 2016, Nancy suffered an injury as a result of an equestrian accident, and while recovering encountered the field of somatics, a form of movement therapy that can treat chronic pain. Driven by her experience, Nancy pursued education in the field, becoming a certified Essential Somatics Movement Teacher and then studying to earn her Clinical Somatic Educator designation.¹⁴

Nancy MacBeth’s political career, from her days as assistant to MLAs Johnson and Hyndman to her time as leader of a provincial political party, is one marked by strong convictions and exemplary work. Her work as a young woman with the PC MLAs left strong impressions that helped her to continue to climb, eventually reaching a place where she could challenge Klein for the leadership of the party. While some in her party sough to criticize or demean her with the ‘Red Tory’ label, it in fact is a testament to the certitude she held in her beliefs, a certitude that eventually saw her cross the aisle to the Alberta Liberals. Though she ultimately lost to the populism of the PCs, Nancy’s championing of the fiscal conservatism and social progressivism she believed in is a testament to her adherence to her principles.