Pubdate: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2013 The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: Allison Lawlor FROM HEROIN ADDICT TO CABINET MINISTER Nova Scotian Overcame Destructive Habit to Rise to Newspaper Executive and Top Level of Government Jane Purves's life took on a movie-like quality. It was the remarkable story of how the privileged daughter of a successful Halifax doctor spiralled into the terrible depths of a heroin addiction, but managed to make a comeback and a success of her life, first as managing editor of one of Nova Scotia's daily newspapers and then as a provincial politician and cabinet minister in former premier John Hamm's Tory government. "Jane was a remarkable person," said Dr. Hamm. "Once you got to know Jane you realized just how smart and how capable she was. She was extremely funny. She was frank. She was never partisan." Just months after being elected MLA for the riding of Halifax Citadel in 1999, Ms. Purves went public with her past addiction to heroin, which lasted for about seven years in the 1970s. She made a bold decision at the time to call a news conference and disclose her painful addiction hours after a reporter asked her about her past drug use. "Initially, I experimented with so-called soft drugs. However, this progressed to hard drugs, and I became addicted," a teary-eyed Ms. Purves read from a prepared statement at that news conference. The addiction took a huge toll on her life. She told reporters she had a criminal record for possession of marijuana, lost custody of her son, who was four years old at the time, and had contracted hepatitis C as a result of her drug use. "Drug use could have ruined my life. It didn't," she said at the news conference. Ms. Purves's admission put her in the national spotlight. She received widespread support for her frankness and strength for being able to kick the drug habit and turn her life around. "We all had tremendous respect for her," said Dr. Hamm. "We knew what challenges she had had, and had overcome. I had a great deal of admiration for Jane." Her revelation didn't affect her place in Dr. Hamm's government. She held two of the toughest portfolios - education and health - in his majority government. She was also minister responsible for the Status of Women and held several smaller portfolios, including minister responsible for the Nova Scotia Boxing Authority. But it was of no help in surviving the bob and weave of the legislature, she quipped. "She was real and wacky and wonderful. She was never your typical politician," said Dale Palmeter, who ran her political campaign. "She wasn't afraid to speak her mind." When asked why she ran provincially, she explained that she had just left The Chronicle Herald and was looking for something. "When Dr. Hamm called me and asked if I would run for them, I said, 'Yes,' " she recently told The Chronicle Herald as part of its inaugural video on the lives of exceptional Nova Scotians. "It was like accepting a dare. I thought it was pretty crazy, but it was fun. It was fun going around and meeting everyone and knocking on doors. But I never thought I would get elected." Ms. Purves's time in politics was short-lived. She was defeated after just one term, in part because she was blamed for a planned school closure in her riding, and because she ran against Danny Graham, the Liberal's popular leader. When the Halifax Regional School Board made the decision to close a school in her riding, outraged parents called on her as Minister of Education to step in. She wouldn't. "I told her the easy thing to do was to intervene and not allow the school to close," Mr. Palmeter said. "She just wouldn't hear of it. She said it would set a bad precedent. She just dug in her heels and stood her ground. She wasn't prepared to bend the rules." Born in 1949 in Halifax, Ms. Purves grew up in the city's leafy South End. Her father, James Purves, was a prominent doctor who taught at Dalhousie University; one of his students was Dr. Hamm. A smart, bookish, privateschool girl, Ms. Purves was 16 when she went to university. It was the 1960s and she rebelled by experimenting with drugs and sex. By 19, she had a child and was married. But drugs were destroying her life. Her four-year marriage ended and she found herself in a drug rehab centre in Quebec. She eventually made her way back to Halifax and got a job at a friend's high-end shoe store. "She had never done sales before," said her son, Tom MacEachern. "She became their best salesperson and she developed a passion for shoes." A tall, well-dressed woman, with striking hair, stylish glasses and a penchant for smoking, Ms. Purves paid attention to detail and went to lengths to straighten and colour her naturally curly hair. During the 1999 election, the provincial campaign team called to request her presence with other local candidates at an early morning event with the leader. They wanted her there at 6 a.m. "I can't," she quickly replied. "It's my hair. It means I have to get up at 4 to do my hair!" She made it to the event on time, but took the rest of the day off, Mr. Palmeter said. Known for her offbeat sense of humour, she loved giving Shannon Martin greeting cards to friends with punchlines such as "Please don't interrupt me while I'm ignoring you" and "It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere." She would buy the cards months in advance, waiting for a perfect occasion. One Mother's Day her son found what he thought was the perfect card for her - a scene of a tough-looking elderly mom sitting across from her incarcerated son during a prison visit. "Have I failed you so as a mother, Robert?" she asks. The son replies from behind glass, "Richard ... My name is Richard." Ms. Purves was amused. She posted the card on her fridge door for years. Ms. Purves's family life was far from conventional. For most of his life, her son lived with his father outside of Halifax and would come for visits. When he turned 18 and went off to university in the city, he moved into Ms. Purves's home and the two developed a strong friendship. She maintained a close relationship with her former husband, Roderick MacEachern, and his wife. They shared regular Sunday family dinners together and when she discovered she had a brain tumour and terminal cancer, she took her son and his family, along with her former husband and his wife, on a two-week vacation to Arizona. It was at The Chronicle Herald where she found her love and her surrogate family. "Graham Dennis [the paper's former publisher] gave me a fabulous opportunity to redeem myself and it worked because I preferred the chaos of working at the Herald to the chaos of wandering around the streets looking for drugs," she told The Chronicle Herald earlier this year. "I replaced one addiction with another." Ms. Purves began as a reporter in 1974 and worked her way up the male-dominated newsroom to become the paper's first female managing editor. She held that position for most of the 1990s. During that time, she was a board member of both the Canadian Press and the National Newspaper Awards. "After her drug treatment she was very focused on her work," Tom MacEachern said. "At the Herald, there was no question that was her family. There was no barrier between her work and her personal life. "Jane would have loved to have spent her career at the Herald. That was her first love," he added. But when the newsroom unionized, she fell out of favour with the publisher and accepted a buyout package in 1999. She returned briefly to the newspaper business in 2003, after losing her provincial seat, when she became editor of the former Halifax Daily News. She soon returned to politics to serve as chief of staff in Dr. Hamm's minority government until his retirement in 2006. "She was a very unusual person," Dr. Hamm said. "She was able to make the jump from journalist to politician and back again and keep the respect of her colleagues. She didn't blur the lines." Ms. Purves briefly held the Irving Chair in Journalism at St. Thomas University in Fredericton and until recently was a radio and television news analyst for CBC News Nova Scotia. Known for her candour, she wasn't afraid to call disgraced Nova Scotian MLA Trevor Zinck, who recently pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and breach of trust, a "spoiled brat." In every cabinet there's a guy like Mr. Zinck who thinks they're owed something, she said bluntly. What she missed about political life was being in the know. Days before her death, she was still debating politics and discussing the latest scandal on Parliament Hill. While she could sit back and listen to others' views, she was keen to express her opinion even when she knew it wasn't what someone wanted to hear. "She had an opinion on everything," Mr. Palmeter said. At home, Ms. Purves, who never remarried, was happy reading (often a good psychological thriller such as those by Patricia Highsmith), doing cryptic puzzles (sometimes spending days on them until they were finished), watching and re-watching movies (especially those with Kevin Spacey) or enjoying a good white wine. About her life, Ms. Purves once said: "My only regret is that I did it my way." Jane Purves died June 1 at her home in Halifax. She was 63. She leaves her father, Dr. James Purves; son Thomas; granddaughters Morgan and Rory; sisters Caroline and Jillian; brother Thomas and former husband Roderick. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom