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Peggy Nash, former assistant to CAW National Presidents, Bob White, Buzz Hargrove, and Ken Lewenza and former Member of Parliament has been awarded one of the country's highest civilian honours.
Nash was named a member of the order of Canada by Govenor General Julie Payette on November 27, 2020 “For her contributions to women’s employment equity, human rights and gender representation in all levels of public office.”
“A legacy of trade union women have benefitted from her smarts, determination, guts, and fierceness. She blazed a path for so many of us,” wrote Lana Payne, Unifor’s National Secretary – Treasurer in a congratulatory post on social media. “Her incredible contributions to public service were also a credit to a feminist who understood that pushing ahead with the work was necessary for real change to occur,” continued Payne.
In 2006 Nash was first elected as the NDP Member of Parliament for the Parkdale—High Park in Toronto, and was the Official Opposition's Industry Critic. In 2008 she returned to the CAW as assistant to then president Ken Lewenza before being re-elected to parliament from 2010 to 2015.
As a CAW leader, Nash was a trailblazer, achieving improvements such as pensions for same-sex partners, developing anti-harassment and anti-racism programs and negotiating a 'right to refuse work' clause for women facing workplace harassment.
Nash is also a founding member of Equal Voice, an all-party organization that advocates for the election of more women in Canada.
