I just wanted to take this chance on the occasion of IWD to acknowledge all the fabulous women in my life. For a girl who was convinced that guys made better friends up until about five years ago, I have really come to see how amazing it is to have so many supportive, fabulous, fierce, talented and funny women around me. I would get in so much trouble for trying to list them, so:

Thanks to my girl gang who almost single handedly got me through the roughest three years I ever hope to have in my life (there are a couple boys who did too, hence the almost - don’t worry).

Cheers to the dedicated, amazing chicks I am so lucky to work with day in day out, night after night, weekends, holidays…and the brilliant woman who is a honourary member of our tiny organizer posse. You three have taught me so much, and your commitment to the movement and the people in it impresses me daily.

To the two women leaders our Party (present and past) for all they gains they made for us and all they had to give up in the process. And the women who mentored me in government and labour and who always supported me even when I screwed up (and for telling me what I did wrong so I didn’t do it again).

To the friends that I have known so long that they are like sisters now (yeah, I never call my family either), both from my past lives and in the Party. And also to the new women I have met in the past year or so who have made such a mark on my life and opened me up to new experiences, and helped me expand out of my daily rut caused by constant elections.

I hope you all know who you are and know you are loved and appreciated.

To the women in my family - the crazy aunts on both ends of the world who and my grandmothers.

And a tribute to Lynne Marie Hill, my mother, who taught me from a young age that the only thing you could do about something that upset you or that you thought was wrong, was to get involved in fix it; and that I could do anything in the world I wanted to. She was still pushing for me to be the first female Prime Minister even after Kim Campbell was elected.

She probably had no idea she would raise a raging New Democrat with that philosophy, but when she did, she was proud. You would have never heard her call herself a feminist, even when she got pissed off that the city council was entirely male and put together a female slate, or when she became one of Canada’s first female Rotarians (I thought she was the first, but I googled it and there are a few women claiming that supposed honour), or started the breast cancer support group that still lives on, but she didn’t need to. Being raised by her and my Nana - who would have never considered letting a man live in the house again as she loved her single lifestyle after my grandfather died after the war and left her with five kids - was my first experience in being surrounded by only women and I remember it fondly.

Happy International Women’s Day!