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.
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