Grace McCarthy opened a flower shop on East Hastings Street in 1944. ‘It was very tough,’ she recalls. ‘In those days you couldn’t open a bank account without a guarantor for your account who was a male. ... So opening a bank account was the first stumbling block. ... Then at City Hall one could not get a business license in a woman’s name. It had to be in a man’s name, so there was another stumbling block. I was lucky to have my father.

with JOHN MACLACHLAN GRAY

Grace McCarthy
She started her own business at age 17 and spent 22 years in the legislature. Perhaps the most effective politician in B.C. history, she recalls, ‘We were more conservative than the conservatives and more socialist than the socialists.’

Being male by birth, I hesitate to horn in on a women’s issue, but the rise of Sarah Palin got me thinking about contemporary feminism for the first time since, well, ever.

It’s partly that Ms. Palin stands completely counter to what women’s movements have always stood for. Face it, women tend to group to the “left” of the political spectrum – child care, equal pay for equal work, issues that have to do with fairness and don’t make a profit.

That, plus the fact that, by elevating Palin way beyond her level of competence, the Republicans managed to wave the banner of Women’s Equality and set fire to it at the same time.

Which made me think of Grace McCarthy – Grace, with the big smile and the flame of hair and the razor intelligence. A female politician whose name evokes another era (as do quaint terms such as “public service”) when politics didn’t seem quite so cynical and mean.

This is a woman who started a business at the age of 17, spent 22 years in the legislature, and served as perhaps the most effective politician in B.C. history. As Deputy-Premier to Bill Bennett, she fronted more initiatives than her boss ever did. Skytrain, The Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre, the redevelopment of False Creek: agree with them or not, these were big, visionary projects.

All political careers have sad endings, and Grace’s career took a dive with the rise of Bill Vander Zalm (think Sarah Palin in a bespoke suit), who veered the party into Republican territory, then fell into disrepute over money in brown paper bags – a Mulroney-esque affair that appeared close to putting him in the clinker. It was left to Grace to preside over the funeral, much in the way that Kim Campbell did for the Progressive Conservatives. (Political parties frequently use women leaders to gain a moral edge when they’re about to hit the deck.)

And the party she served for decades died.

I developed the urge to talk to Grace because she seems the polar opposite of Sarah Palin: a feminist who really did accomplish things for women; a politician who didn’t trash her opponents. In the midst of three nasty, dirty election campaigns, read it and weep.

John MacLachlan Gray: When you opened your flower shop on East Hastings Street in 1944, how hard was that?
Grace McCarthy: It was very tough. Women weren’t recognized in business. In those days you couldn’t open a bank account without a guarantor for your account who was a male – or a couple of males. So opening a bank account was the first stumbling block. Not that there was much money to put in. I started it on 50 dollars. [Laughs]

JMG: Today that’s maybe a thousand, but it’s still not much.
GM: Then at City Hall one could not get a business license in a woman’s name. It had to be in a man’s name, so there was another stumbling block. I was lucky to have my father – the 50 dollars came from him, cashing a War Bond he had. When we rented the store, we didn’t prepay the rent, but paid it at the end of the first month – because it was the month of Christmas. We opened on December 9, and after the month of Christmas sales we had enough to pay the rent, to pay the wholesaler, and have some left over.

JMG: Smart. But the war wasn’t even over yet.
GM: No, it was not.

JMG: How did that affect you, my gosh, starting a business in wartime?
GM: Well, it was at the end of the war, and by the time the boys were coming home, we had taken the amount that was left over and built a little store in the next block; and that little store was where all the men coming home from the services would drop into before going home to their loved ones with a bouquet of flowers. You know, when you look back it was really a happy time to be in business.

JMG: Did you ever talk to Vander Zalm about the flower business?
GM: [Quickly] No. He was in growing and marketing.

JMG: In 1968 you lobbied the federal government to change the requirements for mortgages and loans.
GM: Well, a woman couldn’t get a mortgage in her own name. Even if she had been left money, if she decided she wanted a home or a revenue building, she could not get a mortgage in her own name. Now the Housing Act came under federal administration …

JMG: And this was 1968?
GM: Right. Isn’t that something?

JMG: People need to be reminded how recent these breakthroughs were. We behave as though it happened 150 years ago.
GM: [Laughs] In the old days.

JMG: [Laughs] The bad old days.
GM: But to their credit, as soon as it was drawn to their attention, the federal government acted on it, and the provincial government supported it, and that was very helpful.

JMG: Going further back, when you first ran for office it was for the Parks Board.
GM: I ran in a by-election against nine men. [Rueful laugh] I remember meeting a really good customer in my Vancouver Hotel shop – we had expanded by then – and he came into the store and said, “I understand you’re running for Parks Board.” I said I was, and he said, “You know, I would vote for you if you were not a woman.” [Laughs] That was when I first realized there was a hindrance to a woman being in politics.

JMG: But still, you won. Why was that?
GM: Nobody knew me, but I had “florist” after my name, and people assumed I would know something about parks. What would I know about parks? I knew about wedding flowers. [Laughs] But there it was, and it got me elected. Then I got very involved. The Parks Board is a fascinating area to work. One of my interests was to expand facilities in parks to accommodate the handicapped; and we were adding parks aggressively to preserve open space for the future.

JMG: Did you have anything like a “mentor” or “role-model”?
GM: I didn’t know much about politics. My husband Ray was the best person to talk over things with. From the time he was a teenager he was always interested in politics. He had an objective view of it. When I look back I’m always amazed at how supportive he has been. Back then, men didn’t like their wives to work. To a man it was an admission that he wasn’t bringing home enough pay. Ray was supportive and he was his own man at the same time.

JMG: After having been deputy premier, you didn’t succeed Bill Bennett when he retired. Is that an example of the glass ceiling Hillary Clinton mentioned?
GM: That didn’t really have anything to do with the public at large. It had to do with the process that political parties go through. It’s like in the U.S. – you have to get nominated first. And the fight for nomination is sometimes very vicious.

JMG: So within the Social Credit party, was it a case of the glass ceiling?
GM: I don’t think so, because I had achieved so many things prior to that. … [Pause, a faint sigh] It was almost a war within the party itself. And there was an ultra-conservative group which, er … didn’t fit my way of public life.

JMG: Seems to me the Social Credit party was pragmatic more than ideological.
GM: That’s what drew Ray and myself to the party. W.A.C. Bennett used to say that we were more conservative than the conservatives and more socialist than the socialists. He nationalized B.C. Electric. He was concerned about protecting air and water quality as early as the 1968 throne speech, long before anyone talked about the environment.

JMG: So tell me about your current concern – Children with Intestinal and Liver Disorders.
GM: CH.I.L.D. is so exciting. It was started in 1995 and I was retired. Prior to that I had a member of our family stricken with Crohn’s disease.

JMG: A miserable thing to have, especially for kids.
GM: When they’re youngsters it’s difficult for everyone. It’s hard for a family to look after a child who can’t go to school, or can’t stay out of the bathroom, or attend social and sports events.

JMG: And is in chronic pain.
GM: They’re in pain. The joints, the stomach area. … So anyway, we took a look, and I said, “Let’s find out where there’s research being done.” And I found one – one research grant in a three-year period in B.C. For a hundred and fifty thousand dollars! That was it, period. 1995. So I said, “That’s not good enough. We’re going to get research and find a cure.
Now it’s been 13 years and we have a laboratory with 18 people researching Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and liver disorders. We weren’t recognized in the ’90s, but it’s happening now. So far we have raised 26 million dollars.

JMG: How long have you and Ray been married?
GM: I don’t want to tell you. [Laughs] He is so sensitive about his age. “Oh,” he says, “you don’t need to brag about being married X number of years.” And I’d say, “For heaven’s sake, why not?” And he would say, “Oh, gee, it makes us look so old.” We had this little tiff about it.

JMG: I’m with Ray. I think there’s an anti-placebo effect – if you go around saying you’re old, you’ll get older.
GM: It’s a psychological thing. We never talk about getting old; we talk about what’s our next project.