Jane Stewart

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Image:Janestewart.jpg Jane Stewart, PC (born April 25, 1955 in Brantford, Ontario) is a former Canadian politician who was the Minister of Human Resources Development from 1999 to 2003. In 2006 she briefly held the post of Chief of Staff to Bill Graham, Leader of the Opposition.

Stewart was first elected to Parliament in the 1993 election. She was a close friend of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, and was soon appointed to the important position of Minister of Indian Affairs. In 1999, she was moved to the Department of Human Resources Development (HRDC), the government department that has the largest budget. Stewart was widely viewed to have leadership ambitions, and was closely supported by Chretien.

These ambitions were put to an end by the so called "billion-dollar boondoggle" where poor accounting practices at HRDC left millions of dollars unaccounted for. While the problems at HRDC mostly date from the time of her predecessor, Pierre Pettigrew, Stewart took the brunt of the attack. Despite this, she did not resign, and Chrétien stood by her throughout the ordeal.

She remained minister in charge of HRDC until Paul Martin became Prime Minister on December 12, 2003. She was moved to the backbenches both because of the continued taint of scandal and her position as a loyalist to the ousted Chrétien. She retired from politics on February 13, 2004 to become a delegate to the United Nations International Labour Organization. In July 2005, she left her job with the United Nations to return to Canada and marry Henry Stolp.

With the announcement that Martin was stepping down as leader of the Liberal Party, a group called "Liberals for Jane" had hoped to see Stewart seek the party leadership. This was ruled out when Stewart accepted the position of Chief of Staff to Graham. Only weeks later, Stewart stepped down from the post of Chief of Staff due to familiar obligations. She was replaced by former cabinet minister Andy Mitchell.

Stewart comes from a family of politicians. Her father Robert Nixon was leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, while her grandfather was Ontario premier Harry Nixon.

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