Abbie McDonough told reporters Saturday how she remembers knocking on doors with her late grandmother, former NDP leader Alexa McDonough, when she was little.
Volunteering with her dad Justin to help work the phones in this spring’s campaign has been a chance for the now-23-year-old to connect with her grandmother’s legacy in her former Halifax riding.
“I normally don’t bring it up, but when we talk about the history of the NDP in Nova Scotia, it definitely is brought up with her and [former MP] Megan Leslie,” she said.
“And it’s kind of fun for me to be able to say, ‘Oh, that’s actually my grandma.’ And it’s nice to feel that her legacy does live on — because it’s such an important one.”
Alexa McDonough led the federal New Democrats from 1995 until 2003 and served as the MP for the riding of Halifax from 1997 to 2008.
Prior to making the jump to federal politics, she was picked in 1980 to be the first woman to lead the provincial NDP in Nova Scotia. When she first won her provincial seat in Halifax in 1981, she was the only woman and the only New Democrat in the provincial legislature.
She died in 2022 after what her family described as a lengthy struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Leslie succeeded McDonough as the MP in the Halifax seat and represented Halifax in the House of Commons from 2008 to 2015.
In this spring’s election, former Nova Scotia MLA Lisa Roberts is trying to regain the seat for the New Democrats, after the party was shut out of Atlantic Canada entirely in the 2021 federal election.
Abbie McDonough and her father dropped by Roberts’ campaign office on Saturday afternoon as NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s tour bus stopped by to give the local campaign a boost.
McDonough called Roberts a “strong woman that I look up to.”
Justin McDonough said he thinks it’s really important to have a NDP presence in Parliament.
When a reporter asked him what his mother would make of the current state of federal politics in Canada, he said he finds things “a little discouraging, to be honest.”
“One of the highest callings is to be a politician. And I think it’s really important for society to understand that no one’s perfect,” he said, bemoaning the decline in decorum.
“In the past it wasn’t as negative. And I think it’s really important for the public to be part of that, to be embracing politicians and to try to make society work together as opposed to … against each other.”
‘Everything ebbs and flows’
Abbie, who bears an uncanny physical resemblance to her grandmother, said that thanks to the internet she’s been able to glimpse what politics was like in her grandma’s time.
“I think positivity is such a key driving factor in so many things in the world,” she said. “I think that there needs to be a little bit more light and hope and focus on that instead of tearing down … things and people.”
So would she join the growing list of second-generation politicians in Ottawa?
“I’m definitely loving getting dipping my toe in,” she said, adding that for now she’s just happy to watch and learn more about how politics operates. “Never say never! Maybe one day down the line.”
Justin said his mother’s example leading the NDP through past challenges could be an inspiration to today’s New Democats — who may risk losing seats, not gaining them, in this campaign.
“Everything ebbs and flows,” he said, suggesting there is a “legitimate chance” for the NDP in the Halifax seat.
“You have to be able to have resiliency and perseverance … I think our mother showed those characteristics. And I think, you know, Jagmeet is doing the best he can, when some of it’s beyond anyone’s control.”
