Fonds 2009.6 - The Honourable Iona Campagnolo fonds

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The Honourable Iona Campagnolo fonds

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  • Graphic material
  • Moving images
  • Sound recording
  • Textual record

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Fonds

Reference code

2009.6

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Date(s)

  • 1937 - 2007 (Creation)
    Creator
    Campagnolo, Iona

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Physical description

35 m of textual records and other material

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Name of creator

(18 October 1932-)

Biographical history

Iona Victoria Campagnolo (née Hardy) was born in Vancouver, B.C on October 18, 1932 to Rosamond and Kenneth Hardy. Soon thereafter her family returned to Galiano Island to the family home. In 1940, the Hardy family moved up the coast to the North Pacific Cannery located on the Skeena River near Prince Rupert, where her father worked as Chief of Maintenance. On August 9, 1952 she married (and later divorced) Louis Campagnolo, and together they had two daughters. It was out of a concern for the quality of her daughters’ education that Iona Campagnolo first became involved with municipal politics: first being elected to the Prince Rupert School Board in 1966 where she served for six years as School Trustee, Chairman of the Board, and North Coast Zone Chairman of the Board. Upon completion of her term on the School Board, she ran in the Prince Rupert civic election, won, and served a term as ‘Alderman’ (City Councilor) until 1974. Also during this period (1965-1974) Iona Campagnolo was working for CHTK Radio, Skeena Broadcasters Ltd., as both Advertising Sales Director and Broadcaster: her prowess at the latter position earned her a B.C. Broadcaster of the Year award in 1973.

The early seventies were not only a time of political activism for Iona Campagnolo, they were also a time of continued community activism and development of ethnocultural initiatives within the City of Prince Rupert that had originally begun almost twenty years earlier in 1954. In 1971 Iona Campagnolo was appointed the Royal Visit Co-ordinator for the City of Prince Rupert. As producer, director and costume designer for many performances of the North Pacific Players (a Prince Rupert theatre company) Iona Campagnolo was intrinsically involved in several community theatre performances. To acknowledge and honour her 20 years of dynamic volunteerism within her community, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1973 and was promoted to Officer in 2008.

In 1974 Iona Campagnolo turned her attention to federal politics. Running as a Liberal Party candidate for the riding of Skeena, she won this election and ousted long standing Skeena MP Frank Howard. As Member of Parliament for Skeena, Iona Campagnolo first served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (1974-1976). She was then appointed a Cabinet Member in Pierre Trudeau’s government – a position which subsequently granted her the portfolio of Minister of State for Fitness and Amateur Sport (Sept. 14, 1976 – May 22, 1979). Not only did this new appointment grant her the distinction of becoming the very first Minister of Amateur Sport in Canada, she also became the first woman and Northerner to be appointed a federal Minister.

After electoral defeat in the May 1979 federal election, Iona Campagnolo embarked upon several years of active involvement within the public, private and non-profit realms. Ms. Campagnolo served for two years (1979-1981) as host of a prime time feature interview program on the CBC, from Vancouver, titled “One of a Kind”. During the first three months of 1981, Ms. Campagnolo completed an assignment by the Secretary of State for External Affairs, to organize the founding and incorporation of the “Future’s Secretariat,” with the aim of creating a series of community Task Forces and network linkages at the local level, which would raise the consciousness of Canadians to the interdependent nature of the world and Canada’s role and responsibility to it.
Working as a consultant on Public Relations and Fundraising to CUSO-VSO, (then known only as CUSO or the Canadian University Services Overseas Organization) Iona Campagnolo undertook a large number of speaking engagements particularly in support of refugee re-development, with emphasis on Thai-Kampuchean Border refugees. After spearheading the raising of more than half a million dollars in 1980 towards this particular campaign, she continued to work on various other campaigns on behalf of CUSO. Iona Campagnolo was also a Special Projects Consultant to the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Iona Campagnolo also devoted much time to feminist initiatives, becoming involved in the Jerusalem Women’s Seminar and Intercultural Dialogue and assisting in the organization and emergence of women’s networks in several Canadian urban centers such as Edmonton and Vancouver.

Also from 1979-1981 Ms. Campagnolo acted as Special Consultant in several different capacities to Simon Fraser University (SFU). In January of 1981, Ms. Campagnolo was guest lecturer to senior-level students in the Sport Administration Degree program at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. where she spoke on the involvement of various levels of government in sport development.
During this inter-political period, Ms. Campagnolo was also a consultant to the Calgary Olympic Development Association, assisting them with their bid for the 1988 Winter Olympics, through personal contact with members of the international sport community, including presenting Calgary’s bid to IOC (International Olympic Committee) members in Africa and Europe.

In 1982 Iona Campagnolo once again heard the call from the political realm and stood for election this time for the position of President of the Liberal Party of Canada. She was elected to this position by a Party Convention on November 7, 1982 as the first woman President of the Liberal Party of Canada, after 50 years of male predecessors. In the September 1984 federal election Iona Campagnolo made one last run at federal politics when she ran in the North Vancouver-Burnaby riding. She was, however, defeated in the Mulroney landslide victory that reduced John Turner’s Liberals down to 40 seats. Also in 1984, she served as National Co-Chair of the Liberal Leadership Convention, and was re-elected to the office of President by acclamation at this June 1984 Convention. Ms. Campagnolo served in this capacity until November 27, 1986.

From 1986 - 1996 Iona Campagnolo worked on contract with Contemporary Communications for the National Speakers Bureau. Writing and delivering speeches across the country to a myriad of organizations. From 1987-1990 Iona Campagnolo, as Associate Director, worked towards the establishment and development of the McMaster University Centre for International Health.
In 1992, Iona Campagnolo became actively involved with the establishment and development of a new university in northern British Columbia – the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) in Prince George. On May 23, 1992 she was appointed the founding Chancellor of the University.

In 1995 Iona Campagnolo became a Director (1995-1996) and then Chair (1996-1997) of the Fraser Basin Management Program (FBMP) which worked towards bringing together all four orders of Canadian government (federal, provincial, municipal and First Nations) to address some of the key river management issues identified by Fraser River Action Plan - a part of Canada’s Green Plan.
On September 21, 2001, Iona Campagnolo was appointed by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in the name of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, on the advice of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, as British Columbia’s first female Lieutenant Governor; a position in which she served until September 30, 2007.

Since 2007, the Honourable Iona Campagnolo has remained actively involved with two key issues: reconciling Aboriginal Rights and Title with Crown Title, and salmon sustainability in collaboration with the faculty of Continuing Studies in Science at Simon Fraser University. She currently makes her home on Vancouver Island.

Scope and content

This fonds illustrates the Honourable Iona Campagnolo’s careers as a broadcaster, a theatre producer, community leader, a politician, a feminist, a social activist, a speaker, a lecturer, a Chancellor, an advocate, a consultant and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Types of records reflective of her various careers include: speeches, correspondence, itineraries, contracts, draft manuscripts, newspaper clippings, background material, photographs and ephemera. The Honourable Iona Campagnolo fonds has been divided into the following thirteen series:
1) Photographs
2) Theatre & Community Development
3) Political Career
4) Non-political Activities
5) McMaster International Health Centre
6) Women in Power Project
7) University of Northern British Columbia
8) Fraser Basin Council
9) Miscellaneous – First Nations Material
10) National Speakers Bureau
11) Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
12) Honours & Awards
13) Political Papers

Notes area

Arrangement

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

    Location of originals

    Availability of other formats

    Photographs available in Tiff and Jpeg format. Original items in multi-media format (audiocassette, film, CD-R and DVD) have been duplicated or migrated, and access copies are available for public viewing.

    Restrictions on access

    Due to the personal nature of some of the information captured in the records of The Honourable Iona Campagnolo, some of these files may be restricted in full or in part. To apply for access to this restricted material an Application to Restricted Records by bonafide researchers will be required to be reviewed and approved by the University FOIP/OP Officer. See Archivist for more details.

    Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

    Personal or academic use of photographic materials is welcomed under the standard fair use and educational use clauses of Canadian Copyright Law. Commercial use is, however, forbidden without the express permission of the copyright holder. For information on obtaining written permission from the copyright holder, please contact the Northern B.C. Archives and Special Collections.

    Finding aids

    Associated materials

    The Iona Campagnolo fonds at the BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum consists of 1.1 m of textual records and 101 photographs taken at various public sporting events from 1976 - 1979.

    The Liberal Party of Canada fonds at the National Archives of Canada consists of 99.675m of textual and other material including official portraits taken of The Honourable Iona Campagnolo while she held political office, dates ranging 1978-1986.

    Lieutenant-Governor fonds at the B.C. Archives (Royal B.C. Museum Corporation) consists of of records generated by the Lieutenant-Governor as chief executive officer, and as the Crown’s representative in the province, and includes records created while fulfilling administrative, social, and ceremonial functions. Includes letterbooks, correspondence, dispatches, speeches, oaths of office, and subject files. Consists of 13.51 m of textual records and 6 microfilm reels spanning a date range of 1871-2005.

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    Sources

    •Centre for International Health, McMaster University http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/main/international_health.html
    •University of Northern British Columbia http://www.unbc.ca/15_years/index.html
    •Fraser Basin Council http://www.fraserbasin.bc.ca/about_us/history.html
    •Government House - Lieutenant Governor of B.C. http://www.ltgov.bc.ca/ltgov/role.htm
    •Cowichan Valley Rhododendron Society Newsletter, September 2007
    http://cowichan.rhodos.ca/newsletters/CVRS%20Sept%20newsletter%202007.pdf
    •The International Rhododendron Register and Checklist (2004) Fourth Supplement by the Royal Horticultural Society http://www.rhs.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/853CA286-B007-47C5-86E9-78509B2C10BA/0/4thRhodoSupp.pdf
    •“The Essential Iona” by Jim Hume of the Times Colonist newspaper, June 17, 2007 http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/story.html?id=606d502a-3488-4bd5-abf4-877374ac4b21&k=94612

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