Canada 150 Women_Conversations with Leaders, Champions, and Luminaries

by Paulina Cameron

  What has been a defining moment for you in your professional life?

  In 1983, I was asked to attend a meeting with the executive director of Youth Science Canada. I went, listened, and agreed, initially as a volunteer, to develop the science fair program in BC. I spent the next six years learning about science fairs across Canada, building a network among educators, and making connections with sponsors. In 1984, the BC School Trustees Association (BCSTA) conference theme was science. The BCSTA arranged for a teacher and one student from each of the ninety-one school districts in the province to attend a one-week Science Fair Program in Vancouver, all expenses paid. During the week, in addition to academic and social activities, the students created projects. At the end, an interested university professor provided evaluation feedback on the students’ work. The students were encouraged to be curious about the world around them and to explore other topics that they were passionate about. This opportunity provided me with connections upon which to build the province-wide network of educators and volunteers needed to develop the Science Fair Program for students in every part of British Columbia. This led to over thirty years of a fulfilling career of engagement with committed, dedicated individuals and motivated students.

  What gives you courage?

  Trusting my instincts.

  If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?

  “Connections.”

  Monique Leroux

  “Being a Canadian means that I am a citizen in a country where everything is possible.”

  Birthplace Montréal, QC

  What age do you feel Why not 40?

  Occupation Board member and strategic advisor

  Book you gift most A magazine: The Economist

  Favourite drink Champagne

  Favourite place in Canada North Hatley, QC

  If you could have dinner with any woman, alive or dead, who would it be?

  Angela Merkel, because she is a leader true to her values and conviction.

  What will it take to achieve gender parity?

  The promotion of education in different fields for women, including finance, IT, and engineering, and to encourage more women’s leadership initiatives.

  What does success mean to you?

  Knowing I was able to help people and contribute to society.

  What message would you put on a billboard, and where?

  “Let’s continue to build a better world together for future generations. A world that will be fairer, and have more justice and solidarity. We can achieve inclusive growth by putting the people at the centre of our decisions, and we will at the same time ensure social and economic stability.” I would put it at the door of every financial district and at the door of all government ministries.

  What is your vision for Canada in twenty years?

  For it to be the country of choice, and to continue to be a leading example in the world by being true to our values and principles.

  How did your experience as the first woman to lead a top-tier financial institution inform your perception of women in positions of leadership and power?

  When I started at Desjardins Group as the first woman CEO, in 2008, the challenges were not about the fact that I was a woman, but about my capacity to give the organization ambitious goals and to position it favourably in terms of financial stability. Even if it was a big risk and I could have left my career on the table, it gave me the opportunity to showcase my leadership. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to fully recognize the leadership of women. To me, leadership is defined by three As: to create leadership, you need to have a positive attitude, a well-measured ambition, and a well-decided action.

  If you were to write a book, what would its title be?

  Perseverance Is Key: With Discipline You Can Achieve Anything You Want.

  What is the best investment you’ve made?

  Education in finance and accounting.

  Where do you feel most powerful?

  In my kitchen

  Tell us about a time where you had to summon all of your courage.

  When I started as CEO and Chair of the Board of the Desjardins Group at the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, I was the first woman to be the CEO of the co-operative, so I had double the pressure—to manage a very difficult financial situation and be successful as a woman.

  If you had the gift of a year off, in a paused world, what would you work on?

  Access to education for girls and women.

  Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when you were first starting out?

  I would have been bolder.

  If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?

  “Action.”

  Julia Levy

  “I have always fought feelings of power over other people. I don’t trust it. Consensus works better than power.”

  Birthplace Singapore

  What age do you feel In my prime

  Occupation Mentoring start-up biotech companies, gardening

  Book you gift most No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod

  Favourite drink Gin and tonic

  Favourite place in Canada Lund, BC

  How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?

  When I was growing up in the 1940s and ’50s, I fully accepted the status quo, that men had privileges that we, as women, were not entitled to. I acknowledged that we just had to do things better than men to receive even a little attention. The campus movements of the 1960s and ’70s opened my eyes to the blatant unfairness around me, and I’ve never looked back. Now that I am no longer surprised when I read about women in powerful positions, I feel we are getting there but still have a considerable distance to go.

  What will it take to achieve gender parity?

  We are still too ready to accept the pay differential between men and women. When women demand equal recognition for work done, they are too frequently vilified as pushy bitches. We should learn to be indifferent to the cruel epithets and push through them. We should doubt ourselves less than we usually do. We should not emulate men. The workplace is improved when traditional female qualities are part of the mix. We should be proud of those qualities.

  What has become more important and less important to you in the last few years?

  Environmental questions and global climate change did not feature high in my thinking until the last decade and a half. Now these issues are front of mind. Even in the past decade, it has become frighteningly clear that humanity has already wrought considerable damage on our planet. Our flagrant disregard for what we are continuing to do is tragic. We can’t get around the issues by relying on science to pull us out of this disaster. I live in a beautiful part of the world and am grateful for that every day. I want it to remain beautiful. World leaders are finally paying attention. We can only hope that it will be sufficient to avert the worst of what is to come.

  What does being Canadian mean to you?

  To be part of a country that cares about social justice and the environment, where we are willing to provide for those less fortunate than we are.

  What message would you put on a billboard?

  “Find what you feel passionate about. Then do it.”

  If you were to get a tattoo of one word, what would it be?

  A raven.

  Joanne Liu

  “Making it through the contexts of crises is about finding the right balance between trust and being street savvy.”

  Birthplace Quebec

  What age do you feel It depends... but I can only relate to a younger age. I don’t know how it feels to be 75.

  Occupation International President of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), pediatrician

  Book you gift most Time for Outrage! (Indignez-vous!) by Stéphane Hessel

  Favourite drink Sparkling water with green lemon syrup

  Favourite place in Canada Saint-Irénée, Charlevoix, QC

  What role do you
see gender playing in your field of work?

  Women in humanitarian crises are often the most vulnerable groups in need of assistance. Organizations and leaders need to be aware of how vulnerable women are in times of crisis. Here’s a very striking simple example: by having the women’s toilets in refugee camps in Europe close to men’s, women were made more vulnerable to harassment and sexual abuse. If we don’t provide protection at the outset for more vulnerable groups, they will be abused.

  Has being female impacted your work in any way?

  Being a visible minority makes it challenging. People remind me every day that I look Asian— they don’t remind me that I am a woman.

  Tell us about a time when you had to summon all of your courage.

  I don’t think that working for MSF is about courage per se. People who work for MSF do it because they want to bring assistance to victims of medical humanitarian crises: natural disasters, man-made disasters, epidemics, exclusion. Each context requires strength, know-how, humanity, and a bit of conviction to make a difference. Courage is not part of the equation at the outset.

  What has been a defining moment in your personal or professional life?

  Reading The Plague by Albert Camus as a teenager, and discovering what is driving the protagonist, Dr. Rieux, to keep going despite the situation: loss of lives, and the lack of tools to save lives. He said, “I’ve never managed to get used to seeing people die. That’s all I know.” This has been my motto—despite the situation, I refuse to get used to death.

  What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from being out in the field?

  Making it through crises is about finding the right balance between trust and being street savvy.

  What message would you put up on a billboard, and where?

  “Life is not cheap,” and I would put it on a search-and-rescue boat in the Mediter-ranean Sea.

  If you were to write a book, what would its title be?

  Ebola: A Lesson in Humility.

  What does being Canadian mean to you?

  Holding a future.

  What does Canada need more and less of? It needs to accept more refugees. It has to be less indecisive.

  What does success look like for MSF?

  Although it might sound démago, having a world situation that would make MSF irrelevant—because needs were responded to, crises would be non-existent—would be the ultimate success for MSF.

  What values and practices do you try to instill in your teams?

  Leading by example and humility.

  Alison Loat

  “Throw yourself into things. If you don’t know what you might love to do, don’t stress about that. ”

  Birthplace St. Catherines, ON

  What age do you feel On some days, 18; on others, 50

  Occupation Co-founder of Samara Canada, public policy entrepreneur

  Book you gift most Tribe by Sebastian Junger

  Favourite drink Water

  Favourite place in Canada On any lake in Ontario

  How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?

  What’s really changed is that we haven’t come as far as I thought we had come. Those of us who grew up living the second phase of feminism have been told that you can be whatever you want. You’re as entitled as anyone else. You grow up taking that for granted. I remember when I got into my graduate degree, I was having lunch with a lawyer named Penny Collenette, who had been very active in second-wave feminism in Canada. I related that I didn’t think very much about feminism because it was just present in my view. She said, “Good, because that’s exactly what we fought for for you. I’m going to say that you have to always be vigilant.”

  She was right. We are standing on the shoulders of people who fought real battles for us, but that doesn’t mean that we take it for granted or that there isn’t more work to be done. That’s been an evolution for me. We need to continue to be active in small and big ways.

  What is your vision for Canada in twenty years?

  My enthusiasm for Canada’s 150th anniversary has been tempered dramatically by the realization of the horrible failure reconciliation has been, and how far we still have to go. It’s made me question a lot of the narrative that I was taught about the country. As committed as many Indigenous and other Canadians are to coming up with a better path forward, that and the environment are two of the big questions facing our generation. I don’t even know if we’ll get there in twenty years, but I’d love for there to be a real commitment to getting reconciliation right that is felt in the everyday lives of people. To me, that’s one of the hardest things for Canadians to confront, not only emotionally but also just practically.

  If you were to write another book, what would its title be?

  The Canada We Dreamed Of. We have a lot of unfulfilled potential and I don’t want us to rest on our laurels for everything that we’ve accomplished. I would love to be able to write a book called Potential Achieved.

  Sarah Lubik

  “Success means building an army of innovators who realize how much they’re capable of—and who use that power to make a positive difference.”

  Birthplace Vancouver, BC

  What age do you feel Depends on the day

  Favourite Drink Mulled apple cider

  Occupation Entrepreneur, Renegade Educator

  Favourite Place in Canada Indian Arm, BC

  If you could have dinner with any woman, dead or alive, who would it be?

  My Nana, Miriam Elmore. For ninety-eight years, she was so authentically herself, so strong and incredibly clear in her love and her priorities.

  How has your view of feminism changed over your lifetime?

  Many veils have been removed. I was lucky to grow up with strong female role models, and my father dropped me off at school with the advice, “Give ’em hell.” I naively thought many of the barriers we have faced as women were gone... then I left university for the worlds of tech, business, and innovation, where women were still the exception—and sometimes surprisingly quiet—and I realized how far we still have to go. Now I find myself speaking up—not just driven by wanting to participate, but in order to set an example for the next generation.

  Tell us about a time when you had to summon all of your courage.

  I was once in a meeting with someone significantly my senior who aggressively corrected me incorrectly in areas where I have substantial experience. It set off questions in me like “Is this worth fighting?” and “Is this going to get in the way of what we’re trying to achieve?” and “If I respond, will I damage this relationship?”

  But then I thought, “Would I be silent if I was defending someone else rather than myself?” So I spoke up. It’s important to treat yourself with the respect that you’d give anybody else.

  If you had the gift of a year off, in a paused world, what would you work on?

  I’d learn to play the drums. But after that, I’d go back to school in a field that makes things, like mechatronics engineering, biotech, or science. I transferred out of science to go to business school, not realizing I could do both.

  What is your vision for entrepreneurial education in Canada?

  As future careers become harder to predict, the way we educate has to evolve, too. Innovation and entrepreneurship—skills that cultivate and encourage an ambitious and problem-solving mindset—should be mandatory subjects starting in elementary school. They are tools that help students be ready and comfortable to face an uncertain future, to create their own opportunities, and to solve complex global problems.

  Fiona Macfarlane

  “In my vision of Canada in twenty years, we claim global dominance, not just in hockey, but in ethical, innovative, sustainable business.”

  Birthplace Cape Town, South Africa

  What age do you feel 28

  Occupation Managing Partner, Ernst & Young British Columbia, Canadian Chief Inclusiveness Officer

  Book you gift most Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revi
val of American Community by Robert D. Putnam

  Favourite drink Chilled white wine

  Favourite place in Canada Home

  If you could have dinner with any woman, alive or dead, who would it be?

  Angela Merkel. She is very courageous and demonstrates leadership in very uncertain, volatile, and challenging times.

  What will it take to achieve gender parity?

  I have realized that gender parity in particular, and inclusiveness in general, requires nothing more than leadership and culture change. It’s not that people are inherently opposed to change; it’s just that we haven’t cultivated the conditions in which change can happen. One way to look at it is to compare our corporate culture to salt water.

  For decades, the only fish that swam in the corporate stream were salmon; they thrived. Then someone introduced freshwater fish into the stream; at first they appeared to swim just fine, but then they found it harder to breathe. Some even moved to other streams. No one could understand why they were having trouble. Salt is invisible so it was hard for both the salmon and the freshwater fish to see the problem. To help them, the salmon outfitted the freshwater fish with little oxygen tanks attached to their gills. They could breathe better, but the oxygen tanks were heavy. It was still hard to swim in the salt water.