Audrey McLaughlin was the Federal Member of Parliament for the Yukon (1987-1997) and Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada (1989-1995), being the first woman elected to lead a federal party in Canada. She was a member of the Canadian delegation to the Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing (1995).
Audrey has a Masters Degree in Social Work and an honourary doctorate awarded from the University of Toronto(1995). In 1999, she was appointed to the President's Advisory Committee of the Northern Research Institute, Yukon College and is a founding member of the first Board of Governors of the University of the Arctic. As well, she was made Honourary Senior Fellow at Renison College, University of Waterloo in Ontario. Audrey received an honourary degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada (2003). She has received the Order of Canada (2004) and the Prime Minister appointed Audrey to a two year term on the National Roundtable on the Economy and Environment (Canada 2005). She has also been the citizenship judge in Yukon Canada (2008 and 2009).
Along with a number of articles about women in politics, Audrey wrote the book, 'A Woman's Place, My Life and Politics" (published 1992).
Audrey McLaughlin was President of Socialist International Women (1996-1999) and as President worked on all continents with women from member political parties. She was also a Vice President of Socialist International and a member of the Global Progress Commission (1989-1999). From 1997-2000, she was the Circumpolar Envoy for the Government of Yukon which involved working with the Arctic Council, Northern Forum and bilaterally with Russia, Alaska and Scandinavian countries.
Ms. McLaughlin has been involved in electoral related projects in 22 countries, chiefly in Africa and the middle of East and Eastern Europe, being the full time Director of Legislative Programs for Bahrain (2003/4) and recently completing one year in Morocco as the Director of Legislative Programs. Other projects were with the Commonwealth Secretariat, OSCE and the United Nations University in Jordan.
Audrey is an advisor and evaluator for GeoSpatial/SALASAN on Women in Politics issues and is currently the chair of the Yukon Grandmothers to Grandmothers chapter, Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Audrey began her life in Ontario, Canada and moved to the Yukon, Canada in 1979 where she currently resides. She has two children and two grandchildren.