Who was Kim Campbell?

Avril Phaedra Douglas 'Kim' Campbell (born March 10, 1947) was Canada's 19th Prime Minister and the first woman to hold the office. She served from June 25, 1993 to November 4, 1993, a tenure of about 4 months and 10 days, the second-shortest prime ministerial tenure in Canadian history (after Sir Charles Tupper's 1896 ten-week tenure). Campbell was a Progressive Conservative and led the party from June 13, 1993 to December 13, 1993.

Campbell was born in Port Alberni, British Columbia and studied at the University of British Columbia and the London School of Economics. She practised law in Vancouver before entering politics, serving as a Vancouver School Trustee, a member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly (Social Credit, 1986 to 1988), and a Member of Parliament from Vancouver Centre (Progressive Conservative, 1988 to 1993). She held senior Cabinet positions under Brian Mulroney including Justice Minister and Attorney General (1990 to 1993, the first woman in those roles) and Defence Minister (1993, the first woman in that role).

Campbell won the Progressive Conservative leadership convention on June 13, 1993 against Jean Charest and succeeded Brian Mulroney as Prime Minister 12 days later. She faced an immediate challenge: the Mulroney government's unpopularity (in part driven by the GST, constitutional fatigue from Meech Lake and Charlottetown, and the early 1990s recession) had left the Progressive Conservatives at less than 20 per cent in the polls.

Campbell called a federal election on September 8, 1993 for October 25, 1993. The campaign produced a historic collapse of the Progressive Conservatives, who fell from 169 seats to 2 (Jean Charest in Sherbrooke and Elsie Wayne in Saint John). Campbell herself lost her seat in Vancouver Centre. Jean Chrétien's Liberals won a strong majority. The Reform Party of Canada (52 seats) and the Bloc Québécois (54 seats) emerged as the new Opposition forces. The Progressive Conservatives never recovered, eventually merging with the Canadian Alliance (successor to Reform) to form the new Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Campbell stepped down as PC leader on December 13, 1993 and went on to a diplomatic career, serving as Canadian Consul General in Los Angeles (1996 to 2000) and as Secretary General of the Club of Madrid (2003 to 2008).