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Margaret McCarthy
Margaret
McCarthy was first elected to Flamborough Town Council in 1994, serving
two terms before being elected to the New City of Hamilton Council in
2000. During her first term in Flamborough, Margaret was the only woman
elected. While in Flamborough, McCarthy was instrumental in the drive
to get a new public school, a new Catholic elementary school and a YMCA
for her Waterdown community. Allan A. Greenleaf Public School,
Guardian Angels Catholic School and the Flamborough Family YMCA all
opened within a one-year span between 2000 and 2001.
 Margaret
has served on a number of committees within the City of Hamilton,
including the Accommodation Study Sub-Committee, the Agricultural
Committee, the Waterdown BIA, the Flamborough YMCA Project
Co-ordinating Committee, the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory
Committee (LACAC), the Mill Street District Heritage Committee, the
Selection Committee, the Social and Public Health Services Volunteer
Co-ordinating Committee, the Working Group on Advisory Committees,
Second Stage Services and the Open For Opportunity Task Force.
She is currently chair of the Public Works Infrastructure and
Environment Committee in the City of Hamilton.
Margaret’s goal
is to have the City Council treat the budgets as you would a business.
In her view there is too much catering to special interest groups,
lobbyists and pet projects that have absorbed too many tax
dollars. She continues to strive for tax fairness so that there
isn’t a continual ongoing operating drain to the residential taxpayers.
Margaret
is a long-time resident of Waterdown with her husband, Jim, and can
often be found in the stands of Flamborough arenas, cheering on her
son, Jimmy, and his hockey team. The Time to Go is While You're Still Wanted
Terry Cooke
The Hamilton Spectator
(Dec 15, 2007)
"If
there were more Margaret McCarthys on city council, my life would be
easier and our local government would work a lot better". - Mayor Fred
Eisenberger
At the end of a week that witnessed a former prime
minister of Canada testifying about cash transactions in hotel rooms
with an unsavoury lobbyist, it may be therapeutic to recognize how
fortunate we are to have many politicians who enter and exit public
service for all the right reasons.
One of those people is Margaret McCarthy.
After
five election victories without a loss and with no serious competition
in sight, the Flamborough councillor has decided to call it quits at
the end of this term of Hamilton council. In doing so, McCarthy
fulfills a promise made to her husband Jim prior to the last election.
In any political career, the hardest decision of all is knowing when to say goodbye.
Too many elected officials stay too long at the party and it inevitably ends badly for them, either in defeat or irrelevance.
But the good ones always want to go on their own terms.
For
the 43-year-old McCarthy, the time just seems right to pack it in. She
has had a remarkable run in local politics, accomplished much of what
she set out to do and she knows that there is more to life than eating
rubber chicken and kissing babies.
For Margaret McCarthy, life has been a continuing adventure.
And
while she hasn't decided exactly what to do with herself after politics
besides spending more time with her family, she is young and
resourceful enough to confidently approach new career opportunities.
She
learned much of that resourcefulness from her late father John Woods.
He was an Irishman with a love of business and politics. He owned and
operated Midtown Motors in Hamilton for many years and he took Margaret
along with him to work from an early age so that she could learn the
value of hard work.
Unimpressed with the quality of Canadian
public education, Woods returned to his homeland with his daughter so
that Margaret could attend high school and then college in the west of
Ireland while he occupied himself by operating a hotel.
Later in
life, when Margaret acted upon their shared passion for politics and
ran successfully as a Waterdown councillor at age 29, her dad would sit
behind her at every council meeting and promptly at 11 p.m. he would
kiss his daughter good night, tell her he loved her and say he was
heading home to mama.
Like most female politicians, McCarthy has had to work twice as hard as her male colleagues in order to get half as far.
But
for McCarthy, gender has not been her largest barrier to achievement in
politics. The more significant and hidden handicap that McCarthy has
had to overcome is dyslexia. She's learned to compensate for that
clinical condition by a relentless work ethic and rigorous preparation
for all of her meetings.
That hard work, combined with an
uncanny ability to build good relationships with both politicians and
municipal staff, has enabled McCarthy to get a lot done for Flamborough
in a relatively short time She is most proud of her efforts to
spearhead a number of badly needed community facilities that now serve
her Flamborough constituents, including new schools, a YMCA, bus
service and the impending twinning of the local arena.
McCarthy intends to run hard for the balance of her term to avoid becoming a lame duck.
Her
remaining priorities include finishing a transportation plan to service
Waterdown's growth and leading the fight against a quarry proposal by
St. Mary's Cement that she believes to be environmentally dubious.
While
McCarthy has served Flamborough well, perhaps a larger legacy will be
her positive contribution to Hamilton's difficult political culture.
McCarthy has always been respectful and willing to listen to the views
of others, but also unafraid to make hard decisions.
That includes her decision to leave politics at the top of her game. I think her dad would be proud of all of that.
Terry Cooke is a former Hamilton-Wentworth regional chair. He is president of Cooke Capital Corporation. |
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