AVžăŔÖ˛ż alumna Sharon Carstairs (BAâ62; LLDâ13) laughs when reminded she once began a cabinet meeting by telling everyone in the room âyouâre going to die.â
It was early 2003 and Carstairs, then Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister with Special Responsibility for Palliative Care, was seeking support for new legislation: The Compassionate Care Benefit. It would provide six weeks of benefits to anyone looking after a gravely ill or dying family member.
âIt came to me impromptu,â she explains. âThe ministers had their heads down in their projects and I needed their attention. They all looked up and I said, âNow, letâs talk about how you want to do it.ââ
Going above and beyond
Death is a topic that few of us are eager to broach. Yet for almost 20 years Carstairs has dedicated herself to engaging Canadians in discussions about how we die. Itâs a conversation that she says goes to the heart of who we are as a society. âI consider the dying the most vulnerable people in Canada. If we donât ensure we provide a certain degree of care or services to them at that time, then weâre not, in my view, doing what is expected of us as Canadian citizens.â
Carstairs has always been one to go above and beyond what is expected, proven by the fact she was the first woman to lead the Manitoba Liberal Party and the first woman to lead the official opposition when the party took 20 of 57 provincial seats in the 1988 election. This was at a time when few women were active in politics, and those who were found their every move subject to intense scrutiny just because of their gender.
Still it is Carstairsâs pioneering work in enhancing palliative care in Canada that is particularly important, especially when you consider that such care was virtually non-existent in 1995 when she was appointed to the Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Only 5 per cent of Canadians had access to palliative care then, and little had changed by 2003 when she reminded her cabinet colleagues about their own mortality. It may have been blunt or morbid, but Carstairs was determined, based on personal experience, to make a difference.
That determination came, in part, from the example set by her parents. With a father, Harold Connolly, who served as Nova Scotiaâs 15th premier, and a mother, Vivian, who was a nurse, Carstairsâs Senate duties seemed a natural fit for her. Yet her career initially took a different path, thanks to AVžăŔÖ˛ż. Originally enrolled in the universityâs pre-med program â her mother had changed her application from nursing â Carstairs was inspired by her professors to go into teaching.
âIt was mainly because of Peter Waite and Guy McLean, who were exemplary scholars in their own right. Waite in particular made history come to life because he encouraged us to read novels while exploring Russiaâs past. I took a Master of Arts in the Teaching of History based on that experience. AVžăŔÖ˛ż was just an incredible place to be and it gave me a skill set I still draw on to this day.â
Living a journey
Carstairs would eventually leave education for politics, but palliative would not become a focus until many years later. If anything, it was a long evolution that began with the death of her parents.
âMy father had a very good death because, despite a massive stroke, he lived for 10 years, well beyond any of our expectations. But I was very angry with the way my mother died, because her do not resuscitate order was not respected. I came to realize my motherâs experience of not dying well was more typical than my fatherâs and thatâs what galvanized me.â
That was 1980. At the time, Carstairs had no inkling there were hospices in Canada. It would be six years before she would visit a palliative care unit at St. Boniface in Winnipeg. It would be another nine years before she was appointed to the Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, which released a report in 1995 with 14 recommendations on improving palliative care. Four years later, Carstairs decided to see what became of those recommendations, and that resulted in the 2000 report Quality End-of-Life Care: The Right of Every Canadian. But it wasnât until she became the Government Leader in the Senate that she began to get real traction on this issue.
âI went to Prime Minister Jean Chretien and asked if I could use the tag line of Minister with Special Responsibility for Palliative Care. He didnât understand why I wanted to do that, but he agreed and told me I wouldnât get any money. I said Iâd find it, which I was able to do.â
Being the only senator at the cabinet table, Carstairs realized she had the ability to effect change. âYouâre the person the cabinet members come to in order to get legislation through the Senate. So I used the leverage. If I was talking to Corrections or Veteranâs Affairs about legislation, Iâd say âWhat are you doing about palliative care?â And as a result, I was able to make some breakthroughs.â
In fact, there are four breakthroughs that she is particularly proud of: the aforementioned Compassionate Care Benefit, a $16.5 million commitment from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research for palliative care research over four years, an agreement with the College of Physicians and Surgeons that palliative care would become part of the core program for undergraduates studying medicine and the founding of the Canadian Virtual Hospice, a Winnipeg-based bilingual internet resource that receives approximately 1,600 hits a day.
Making change
Now retired from the Senate, Carstairs looks back on those achievements, and the multiple reports and presentations she made, and sizes up her legacy. Currently, there is a 35 per cent access rate to quality end-of-life care in Canada, family doctors are more knowledgeable on the subject and there are residency programs in palliative care. Clear progress, but not to the degree sheâd like to see due to everything from an emphasis on acute care in the system to a lack of commitment from the most recent government. But Carstairs has every reason to believe that this could soon change.
âThe baby boomers are becoming the aging population and theyâve had everything the way they wanted it all their lives. Theyâre not going to put up with anything less. Theyâre going to become the focus of demand for palliative care.â
And Carstairs will be there beside them, pushing for change, serving on committees and giving presentations whenever possible. âIt is something where I feel I can continue to make a difference. I can continue to reach out to people and make them think they can also do it. Thatâs even more important, because I canât do it all.â
Thatâs not to say she wonât try. âI wonât be satisfied until every single Canadian has access to palliative care. I donât know if itâs possible. But I wonât rest until Iâve done all I can to make it happen.â
This article is part of the Building a Better World series, featuring profiles of outstanding alumni. For more stories, visit .