Five things you may not know about Deborah Coyne

Liberal Party of Canada leadership candidate Deborah Coyne has released a new ebook called Unscripted: A Life Devoted to Building a Better Canada. Here are five tidbits from the book that you may not have known about her:

1.  Deborah’s history in the Liberal Party goes back to 1983, when she was elected to then party president Iona Campagnolo’s reform commission. Along with Alf Apps, Ed Roberts, Gordon Gibson and others, she worked for three years on a proposed reform package. One key recommendation, a council of riding presidents, was only implemented a few years ago, proving our party has a long history of studying reform, but less success actually implementing it.
2. She served as Ontario policy chair on John Turner’s successful leadership campaign and would work in the Prime Minister's Office during his brief tenure as Prime Minister.
3. She would first come to national prominence as one of the leaders in the fight against the Meech Lake Accord, which is ironic, as she spent most of her childhood summers at a cottage on the shores of Meech Lake, accessible only by boat. One of her fellow co-founders of the Coalition on the Constitution was Michael Ignatieff’s father, George.
4. A source of inspiration for her decision to seek the leadership was attending Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally forSanity” in Washington. Knowing the same frustration that drew 250,000 people to the National Mall also holds true in Canada, she decided it can’t just be comedians that give voice to our collective frustration.
5. While a student at Oxford University in England, she established its first Women’s Ice Hockey Club and helped establish a women’s league. She captained the Oxford team her first year, scoring a goal in the inaugural game loss against Cambridge. The league is still going strong today.

The book is available for free with a minimum $25 donationto her campaign, or through Amazon Kindle, Kobo and Star Dispatches. It’s a very compelling read about her front row seat to some of the defining moments of Canadian history over the last 30 years, and how her experience has shaped her political outlook and her decision to seek the Liberal leadership.

Read an excerpt on her beginnings in the Liberal Party on the Huffington Post: Unscripted: A Life Building a Better Canada (EXCERPT)

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