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Grace Mary McCarthy, OC, OBC (born October 14, 1927) is a former Canadian politician and florist in British Columbia. Nicknamed Amazing Grace by members of her longtime political party, the Social Credit Party of B.C, she was largely responsible for rebuilding the party after its defeat in the 1972 provincial election. ==Political career== In the 1960s Grace was a popular elected member of the City of Vancouver Parks Board. She was actively recruited to run for a seat in the Provincial Legislature by then Premier of the Province W.A.C. Bennett. In an attempt to improve his hold on power Bennett promised that any woman elected to the legislature while he was in power would become a member of his Cabinet. In 1966 Grace successfully campaigned and was elected along with Les Peterson to co-represent the dual member riding of Vancouver-Little Mountain. Bennett made McCarthy a Cabinet Minister without portfolio, as well as Pat Jordan and Isabel Dawson. McCarthy was later a senior cabinet minister, serving in a variety of portfolios, in the governments of Social Credit Premier W.R. Bennett from 1975 to 1986 and of Social Credit Premier Bill Vander Zalm from 1986 until her resignation from cabinet in 1988. In 1968, McCarthy successfully lobbied both the Canadian federal and British Columbian provincial governments to broaden home ownership credit legislation to include single, divorced and widowed women without the need for a male guarantor. In 1982, McCarthy was suspected of interfering in the re-drawing of the electoral boundaries of her Little Mountain constituency, to include an appendage of a wealthy westside Vancouver area, thus helping ensure her electoral success. This appendage and subsequent scandal became known as 'Gracie's Finger'. The actual area in question was between 16th and 33rd Avenues in Vancouver around the Arbutus Street corridor.〔Vancouver Province. September 6, 1982. P.1 (with illustration)〕 In 1986, McCarthy parlayed the idea to illuminate the main cables of Vancouver's Lions Gate Bridge and arranged private-sector sponsorship by the Guinness family, the bridge's builders and original owners. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Grace McCarthy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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