Farewell To A Gentle Warrior

Parliament said goodbye today to one of the good ones. Dawn Black, NDP member from New Westminster-Coquitlam, held her emotions in check at she rose at the end of Question Period to announce she was leaving the House of Commons to run for a seat in the upcoming provincial election in British Columbia.Go to her website - www.dawnblack.ca - and you'll get a sense of why she's special. First elected in 1988, she has served with real vigor and integrity on the files she has handled in Parliament since that time. Some say her finest moment came following the shooting at École Polytechnique in Montreal of 28 people and the death of 14 women. It sent a shock through the system and Parliament struggled with how to respond. It was left to Ms. Black to speak passionately in the House about the need for Parliament to respond fittingly. It was 1989, and she had only been a Member of Parliament for one year. With the support of the entire House, she called for the commemoration of the event by asking Parliament to recognize the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. She recalled the moment today in her final speech.I have only known Ms. Black for slightly over two years, but I have learned she is a person with "finest moments." She was kind upon my first entry into the House. Where some played politics, she pushed all that aside to assist in any way she could. In truth, her congeniality and adroit way of working with other parties served as something of a role model for me. I told her so in a personal letter I wrote her a couple of weeks ago, and even in the penning of those words I sensed I would miss her influence.A proud grandmother of many, she was a tough as steel when required. This was best evidenced when Jack Layton made her his Defense critic.She was a remarkable MP, liked by all and will be missed by all. She had a chance today to get in some final shots at the other parties. She refused and called upon all members to be more respectful and kind to one another. That's easy to say in your final speech, when you know the warring is ended. But this woman, who could argue with the best of them, showed a great sense of non-partisan kindness throughout her entire career. In these pages we have been calling for a less-partisan House. That task just became infinitely harder today with the loss of someone who actually lived out that goal. We are left with a significant emptiness. Will it be filled with just more rancor or perhaps a slight nudge in the direction of fairness and respect?