Biography & Autobiography Political
In My Own Name
- Publisher
- Random House of Canada
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2004
- Category
- Political, Women, Canadian
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780679312321
- Publish Date
- Oct 2004
- List Price
- $22.00
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Description
At the age of 50, lawyer and activist Maureen McTeer takes stock of an incredibly eventful life. In a book that will be inspirational for women of all ages, McTeer shares the struggles and triumphs of a private person living in the public eye.
Throughout her adult life, Maureen McTeer has played many roles, often simultaneously: lawyer, mother, author, public speaker, activist, parliamentary candidate, scholar, volunteer. Perhaps most visibly, she has been cast as the Political Wife, criticized for years by those who believed that keeping her name when she married Joe Clark was a sign she was not deferential enough to men.
For the first time, In My Own Name tells Maureen McTeer’s story. In a voice that is as entertaining, warm and funny as it is inspiring and insightful, she outlines the struggles and triumphs of what it means to work for justice and for equity, and to be her own woman in an era of extremely mixed messages.
Born and raised in Ottawa, the twenty-year-old Maureen McTeer was already a seasoned political worker when she went to work for a young M.P. from Alberta, Joe Clark. By the time she was 22, they were married. While fulfilling the many duties of a politician’s wife, McTeer also attended law school, and gave birth to her daughter, Catherine, in 1976. The following years would prove to be a time of personal and political highs and lows for the family. Following his sojourn at the pinnacle of Canadian political power, Joe Clark remained a dedicated Cabinet minister and parliamentarian, while McTeer continued to rise to new challenges in her career.
In My Own Name is filled with personal stories that are often moving, and always revelatory. In her own words: “Complacency and self-satisfaction are not options for me in this next half of my life. They never were, and they never will be.”
“I have always been out of step, frowning upon the easy comfort of the status quo. I realize fully that my refusal to conform to society’s narrow definitions labelled me early on as a person of controversy. Even today, this reputation for contrariness lingers. I kept my name when it was unpopular and became a feminist before it was fashionable. I was one of the first wave of women professionals who sought to balance family and work, and refused to choose one over the other.”
About the author
Maureen McTeer is an author and lawyer, specializing in health policy and medical law. Tough Choices: Living and Dying in the 21st Century is her third book. She has been a visiting scholar in the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley; she has practised law in Toronto and Ottawa and has lectured on law at the Universities of Calgary and British Columbia. She is a member of the Clinical Ethics Committee at the Ottawa Heart Institute and a public member of the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools. In addition, Ms. McTeer is a member of the Boards of the Canadian Living Foundation's Breakfast for Learning, and the Canada-China Child Health Foundation. She was a member of the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies from 1989–91.
Excerpt: In My Own Name (by (author) Maureen McTeer)
Introduction
Today, June 8, 2002, is Catherine’s wedding day. Beautiful and poised, my daughter glides into the National Gallery’s Great Hall with her new husband, Chad Schella. Behind them, the Parliament Buildings are bathed in the June evening light. She has chosen this magnificent place for her wedding dinner to remind people of our love of art and to have “Daddy’s office” (as she used to call the Parliament Buildings) in the background. Their stately presence reminds us of the political dramas that have formed our lives. I watch my precious daughter, standing between her father and husband, and am filled with happiness. Turning slightly, I see the tiny island to the west in the river nearby. Just over a century ago, my Irish ancestors would have been quarantined there for fear they carried deadly, contagious diseases. Today, four generations later, the island’s buildings are in ruins; my family is a proud part of Canada’s capital city, my husband one of our country’s leading statesmen. What would they have thought had they been able to see us now, such a fortunate family, blessed with good friends, surrounded by people of affluence and influence.
Above the celebration, I hear my husband’s distinctive laugh and glance back as he greets Jean Charest, a friend whose decision to step down as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 1998 so dramatically altered my own life. It was during the leadership campaign which followed that Catherine met Chad and they fell in love. I watch the two of them greet the crowd and I wonder if the lessons that politics at its best can teach -- those of commitment and loyalty -- will bind them together as they have Joe and me these past thirty years.
I laugh as I spy my closest girlfriends gather in a circle around Catherine. They support her today as they have always supported me. I have known them for decades, and our lives are bound by stories of happiness and pain, of good times and bad. As each one hugs my only child, I thank them quietly for their presence with me today, and pray that Catherine will be as lucky in her friendships as I have been in mine.
In a whirl, my mother enters the huge windowed hall, ushered along by my youngest sister, Jane, who is Catherine’s godmother. In a minute they will join me and Chad’s mother, Charmaine, to pose for family pictures. My mother is bursting with pride. Friendly and warm, she greets old friends and makes Chad’s family feel at home. As I watch her, I feel a sudden stab of sadness. I wish my father were here. He has been gone for twenty-four years now, almost all of Catherine’s life, yet I know he would have been proud of this sight. The room below is filled with people from politics, business and sports, friends from all walks of life who have touched Catherine’s and Chad’s lives over the years and who are joined by their love for this young couple. I become aware that my name is being called, and I turn to see my new family waiting. For twenty-five years, Joe, Catherine and I have been a close-knit trio. Now, as I welcome Chad with a hug, I realize that we are four. I kiss them all and we smile for the camera. A new stage of our lives begins.
* * * * *
In every life there are moments like these -- events that mark passages and require reflection. Catherine’s wedding is one such moment in a year that has been filled with passages. In February 2002, I turned fifty. It has been a busy year -- a wedding, two moves, Joe’s decision to step down as party leader and my own to take a sabbatical year in England. Even by the standards of my hectic life, this has been a pivotal year for us personally and professionally.
And, of course, I decided to write this book, allowing me to share some of my own stories of the first half of my life’s journey, as lived by a very private person in a very public way. My life has been fascinating and full, with its share of happiness and of pain. No lesson could have prepared me for the public life I have led and the prominent role I have assumed. I have challenged social conventions: I kept my name when it was unpopular; became a feminist before it was fashionable; and joined the first wave of women professionals who sought to balance family and work, refusing to choose one over the other. I ran for Parliament in a federal election -- as part of the first husband-and-wife team to ever do this -- to show by my own example that politics is a profession that needs women. Through all of this I have sought to carve a different role for myself as a political wife and an independent woman. It has rarely been easy, but it has always been worthwhile -- a life of opportunity and hope, of birth and death, of public duty and personal commitment.
I am about to enter a new stage of my life. But before I do, I need to retrace some of my steps. I have spent the past three decades at high speed, taking care of my family, pushing forward in my career and fighting to keep a private life while charting new waters in a public one. Unnoticed, the passing years have brought me to middle age. The retirement years are supposed to lie ahead, and yet I feel energized and restless for new adventures. I belong to a lucky generation -- the first generation of women to taste equality, enjoy higher education and compete professionally in all fields. I have been in the vanguard of social changes so profound that they have yet to be digested fully and understood. I am a woman of my generation -- a feminist and mother, a professional and volunteer. I am an empty-nester and a chronically worried parent. I want to abandon well-travelled paths in favour of others yet unknown. I am in transition. Joe and I both are, and this both excites and frightens me. So I have stopped here for a moment to reflect, to look back so I can move forward. This, then, is my story, which I share, as always, in my own name.
Editorial Reviews
“In My Own Name is a fascinating look at Canada’s recent political past, as seen from the inside. It is a candid, personal account of the joys and stresses of political life...Maureen McTeer is an example to all Canadian women, indeed to all women everywhere. She shows us that it is possible to live our convictions, to fight for what we believe in, and even to find a life partner who will support us, and cheer along the way!”
—The Hamilton Spectator
“A remarkably candid memoir...the political book of the season...the most revealing read this fall for political junkies.”
—The Ottawa Citizen
“Highly personal and surprisingly candid.”
—The National Post
“It is a thought-provoking book that prompts reflection upon how life has changed for Canadian women over the past three decades, the fragility of those gains and how much has yet to change.”
—The Gazette (Ottawa)
“McTeer has strong opinions and is not afraid, is even eager, to share and explain them.”
—The Globe and Mail
“What makes [In My Own Name] a success, rather than an earnest but dry treatise on one woman’s feminist life, is the palpable warmth with which she writes. In My Own Name gives us lovely little tidbits of behind-the-scenes action that will delight any political junkie…. One can’t help but marvel throughout the memoir at the seemingly endless font of energy McTeer brings to life…. It’s a classy read all the way.”
—Edmonton Journal
“Her memoir … is a thorough, dignified work. For a woman who has always been intensely private, the book is a revealing look into the cost that politics can exact on a family…. It’s not a show-and-tell, spill-the-beans book, but rather one that presents us with a picture of a woman who has long had a reputation for contrariness and who became a feminist before it was fashionable. It’s also a primer on how to balance a busy political life with motherhood and a respected legal and academic career.”
—Edmonton Journal
“McTeer’s honesty and her personal look into her own life and that of being a public figure as ‘wife of’ are not only interesting, but would be instructive for all the young women who have never known a world without feminism and equality.”
—The Calgary Herald; The Ottawa Citizen
“McTeer’s honest look into her own life and that of being a public figure is interesting and potentially instructive — especially for young women who have never known a world without feminism and equality.”
—Truro Daily News/Times Colonist
“Maureen McTeer helped redefine political wives … This mid-life memoir demonstrates a dedication to and a passion and sacrifice for politics … Many readers will find entertainment, even catharsis, in McTeer’s blunt criticisms of her political rivals and detractors.”
—Fast Forward Weekly
“Maureen McTeer’s Memoir is an intriguing and intimate recounting of a personal, professional and political life lived on fast forward, by a very private person…McTeer is such a good storyteller that she makes us experience vicariously the tension and the atmosphere of these Machiavellian political confrontations…McTeer is an evocative travel writer…In My Own Name is a warm witty and moving testimony of McTeer’s personal journey.”
—The Record (Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo)
