L. Ian MacDonald

June 20, 2023

Anna Gainey, who will soon be sworn-in as the new Liberal MP for Westmount, had an awful lot going for her in her first run at a seat in Parliament. As safe bets go, there is arguably no safer Liberal riding in the country than Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount — the wealthy, heavily-anglo enclave formerly held by Marc Garneau. And as former president of the federal Liberal Party and an FOJ — Friend of Justin — she had no trouble drawing high-profile door-knockers to campaign for her in Monday’s byelection.

But above all, Anna Gainey has a hockey name in a hockey town.

As the daughter of Bob Gainey, former general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, former captain of the team and Hockey Hall of Famer, Anna Gainey is hockey royalty in a city where no other royalty counts as much, notwithstanding the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and Le Roi du Smoked Meat.

Bob Gainey came to Montreal in 1973, drafted from the OHL’s Peterborough Petes, speaking only high school French. Over his years with the Habs, he became an adopted Montrealer and the city grieved with the Gaineys when his wife, Cathy, died in 1995 after a heroic five-year battle with cancer and their daughter, Laura, was swept to sea in a storm while crewing the tall ship Picton Castle out of Lunenberg in 2006.

In 2007, Bob and his three surviving children, Anna, Colleen and Steve launched the Gainey Foundation in memory of Cathy and Laura Gainey. It supports environmental and arts education programs for youth.

So, bearing the Gainey name in Montreal doesn’t make Anna Gainey a nepo baby; it gives her a legacy of character to live up to, which, by all accounts, she has done as a lawyer, mom of three children and politically engaged citizen.

A graduate of McGill and LSE, Anna Gainey served as a policy advisor to two ministers of National Defence and Veterans Affairs, and while CEO of the of the Liberal Party helped elect the first Liberal majority government in 15 years. She’s also been executive chair of Canada 2020, the progressive think tank. She’s married to Tom Pitfield, son of the late Pierre Trudeau confidant, clerk of the Privy Council and senator Michael Pitfield, which also makes her Liberal royalty.

But she was far and away the best person for this job, and even as a freshman member, will be a logical candidate for promotion to cabinet before the next scheduled election in October 2025.

That’s if Trudeau doesn’t pull the plug in the meantime.

Byelections are normally opportunities for voters to register their anger and even contempt for the government of the day.

Not this time.

For Bob Gainey, it’s the best Father’s Day present he could have ever received, with Kathy and Laura watching.

Ian MacDonald, Editor of Policy Magazine, was a longtime political columnist of The Montreal Gazette.