Politics
In the federal election of 1993, Bassett ran as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's. She lost to Liberal Barry Campbell by over 15,000 votes.
Bassett was elected in the provincial election of 1995, defeating Liberal candidate Carolyn Bennett (later a federal Member of Parliament) by about 3,500 votes. She served as the Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for St. Andrew—St. Patrick for the next four years. On October 10, 1997, she was appointed Minister of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation in the government of Mike Harris. Despite the Harris government's right-wing reputation, Bassett is a Red Tory, and was one of the most socially progressive members of the Harris cabinet.
John Bassett died in 1998, and Isabel subsequently began a relationship with cabinet colleague Ernie Eves.
In the 1999 provincial election, Bassett was defeated in the new provincial riding of St. Paul's by Liberal candidate Michael Bryant. She was one of several Toronto Progressive Conservatives defeated in the city due to the unpopularity of Harris' government.
Bassett has also written a number of books on the political, social and historical achievements of Canadian women.
Read more about this topic: Isabel Bassett
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“His talk was like a spring, which runs
With rapid change from rocks to roses:
It slipped from politics to puns,
It passed from Mahomet to Moses;
Beginning with the laws which keep
The planets in their radiant courses,
And ending with some precept deep
For dressing eels, or shoeing horses.”
—Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802–1839)
“All politics takes place on a slippery slope. The most important four words in politics are “up to a point.””
—George F. Will (b. 1941)
“Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country—and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.”
—Charles Krauthammer (b. 1950)