Matriarch, intellectual, patriot. Born Nov. 7, 1923, in Port Arthur, Ont. Died Aug. 24 in Halifax of Alzheimer's disease, aged 86.
Elisabeth Howe Stedman was 11 when her father C.D. Howe was elected to Parliament, igniting in her a passion for politics.
Liz was the second of five children of C.D. and Alice Howe. She was immensely proud of her Pop, as the family called him, but somewhat uncomfortable with the attention his political celebrity as "Minister of Everything" brought her in Ottawa.
Liz opted to study at McGill, earning a BSc in botany during the Second World War. She relished her university years and many decades later remained close with friends from her student residence, Royal Victoria College.
In 1946, she married Robert Stedman, whom she had first met years earlier in Ottawa. She worked as a lab assistant at the University of Toronto while Bob finished the engineering degree he had started at the Royal Military College and put on hold to fight with the British Army in North Africa and Italy.
When she became pregnant, Bob made it clear his wife was no longer to work. They moved first to Port Arthur, now part of Thunder Bay, and then to the West Island suburbs of Montreal, where Liz raised their four children, Robin, Charles, Bill and George, to be strong and independent.
An ardent supporter of education, Liz spent long hours advocating for anglophone families on her local school board during Quebec's Quiet Revolution, and revelled in offering her guidance to undergraduates as a student adviser at her beloved McGill.
Though she could be warm, loyal and often very funny, Liz didn't suffer fools and was never shy with an opinion, particularly when it came to social justice. She was known to entertain friends with poignant quips dished out over hands of bridge, rounds of golf and cups of coffee.
Press criticism of her father following the 1956 Trans-Canada Pipeline Debate, when he used closure to block discussion, affected Liz deeply. She thought the media fracas amounted to slander and became convinced that politics was "a terrible career," a view she voiced often.
Much like her mother, Liz assumed the role of matriarch and kept close watch over her extended family. She lived to be a great-grandmother - or "More Granny," as she preferred. She showered her eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren with books and encouraged the younger generations to study, travel and vote Liberal.
Liz and Bob retired to Ottawa in 1978. Alzheimer's disease took hold of Liz around the same time that Bob became frail. After his death in 2003, Liz resisted all efforts to impinge on her privacy and space. But she eventually came to accept the presence of caregivers in her Ottawa apartment, and spent her final three and a half years in Halifax near Robin, who fought for her comfort and dignity until her last day.
By Laura MacInnis, Elisabeth's granddaughter.