Dewar dies after serious fall

[Clintonista2]

Toronto — Former Ottawa mayor Marion Dewar has died after suffering a serious fall in Toronto.

The 80-year-old was mayor from 1978 to 1985 and served as an NDP member of Parliament for a year after the 1987 election.

Ms. Dewar also served as president of the federal NDP for several years during the 1980s.

It's believed she was in Toronto for a function when she was hurt.

Her son, Ottawa Centre NDP candidate Paul Dewar, was reportedly at her side after the incident.

No further details have been released

== ==

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080915.wdewar0915/BNStory/National/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080915.wdewar0915

[iverglas]

1. Wow

What a start you gave me.

I knew Marion Dewar relatively well, and like everyone else who knew her, was very impressed by and fond of her. This is very sad news. One more of a generation of women -- June Callwood, Doris Anderson -- who did great things for Canadian woman, and Canada.

If I believed in such things, I'd be wondering what she and Charlotte Whitton might be talking about now. ;)

[Clintonista2]

2. Yea I probably should have used a different title

I originally thought it was Paul Dewar when I saw the headline.

[iverglas]

3. ditto

when I saw yours. ;)

[iverglas]

4. Marion

http://centretownnewsonline.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=300&Itemid=94

Originally a public health nurse, Dewar, born in 1928, was raised outside of Ottawa in Buckingham, Que. She started her life in politics as an Ottawa councillor in 1972.

... When elected mayor in 1978, Dewar advocated against {sic} nuclear disarmament and while she was mayor she assembled a convention on the issue of homosexuality.

In 1979, she helped try to find sponsors for 4,000 Vietnamese refugees in Ottawa through Project 4000.

... She became chair of Oxfam Canada in 1995, which is an organization that helps fight for the rights of those who are impoverished and have faced injustices around the world.

Dewar was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2002.

"Humanitarian" might be the best one-word summation.

[Canuckistanian]

5. That's a shock

They were playing clips of her on CBC radio this morning.

She really had a social consciousness and she acted on it.

A real loss for Ottawa and the country.