FOG BLOG POLITICS LOG: FIRST WOMAN TO HEAD A MAJOR POLITICAL PARTY , ALEXA McDONOUGH HAS DIED:

Alexa McDonough, former NDP leader and trailblazer for women in politics, has died at 77.....McDonough changed the face of politics in Canada and paved the way for other women to follow.....Alexa McDonough, whose leadership of the Nova Scotia NDP in 1980 made her the first woman to lead a major political party in Canada, has died at the age of 77.

McDonough, who also became the leader of the federal New Democratic Party in 1995, died at a care home in Halifax on Saturday after a lengthy struggle with Alzheimer's disease, her family said.

Known affectionately as simply Alexa, McDonough changed the face of politics in Canada and paved the way for other women to take their places at the pinnacles of political power. She was an inspiration to generations of New Democrats even after her retirement from politics 14 years ago.

The one-time social worker's passion for social justice carried her first to the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia, where she helped craft the party's social policy platform in the 1970 provincial election. But by 1974, disenchanted with the government of then-premier Gerald Regan, she found a new home in the NDP and never left.