Elaine McCoy was born March 7, 1946 in Brandon, Manitoba and moved to Alberta at an early age. After completing a bachelor’s degree and a law degree at the University of Alberta, she pursued a career in law as senior legal counsel for the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board and as counsel for TransAlta.

McCoy was asked by former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed to run in Calgary West as his replacement upon his retirement from provincial politics; she won the seat in 1986. McCoy was named to cabinet as Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs and Minister responsible for Women’s Issues by Don Getty. As Minister, Senator McCoy was responsible for creating the Insurance Council of Alberta, restructuring the Alberta Securities Commission, and for introducing a variety of new policies to protect consumers and to recognize foreign credentials.

Senator McCoy was appointed as Alberta’s Minister of Labour and Minister responsible for Human Rights in 1989, where she was responsible for Alberta’s personnel administration office. During this time, she set up an Alberta Human Rights commission inquiry which was responsible for investigating and eliminating supremacist activity in the province.

Senator McCoy was also keen to shed light on violence against women and spearheaded the Lake Louise Declaration in 1990, Alberta’s first action plan designed to fight violence against women. Upon Premier Getty’s retirement in 1992, McCoy ran for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta against Ralph Klein. Although she was defeated, some points of the McCoy Plan were eventually co-opted by the Klein government.

Elaine McCoy was President of the Macleod Institute which is known for its expertise on program evaluations and environmental management. While at the Macleod Institute, she authored the influential Bow Corridor Regional Mobility Strategy, a regional transportation strategy for people and animals in the Bow Corridor. Elaine McCoy was a past President of the Sir Winston Churchill Society and currently Vice Chair of Climate Change Central, a multi stakeholder organization designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Alberta.

Elaine McCoy was appointed to the Senate of Canada by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, on March 24, 2005. She was the last remaining member of the Canadian Senate to sit as a Progressive Conservative following the retirement of Senator Lowell Murray on September 26, 2011. On February 11, 2013 she changed her designation to Independent Progressive Conservative, before changing it once again, to Independent, on February 17, 2016.

Since being appointed to the Senate, Senator McCoy has been an voice for the role of the individual Senator, for effective Senate reform, for an inclusive federation, and the role of Alberta in Canada. Senator McCoy broke new ground with her website, www.albertasenator.ca as the only member of the Senate of Canada who regularly blogs on her experiences in Ottawa and the political issues of the day.

As of 2017, Senator McCoy was a member of the following Senate committee(s):

Elaine McCoy died on December 29, 2020 in Ottawa, Ontario.

The fonds consists of records that were created and maintained by Elaine McCoy during her time as Minister of Labour, Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs, and Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues. There are also records relating to the Alberta Securities Commission, the Insurance Council of Alberta, the Women’s Secretariat, and the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Some of the prominent themes are insurance, real estate, licensing, mortgages, women’s rights, human rights, industrial relations.

Records include case files, exhibits, correspondence, personnel decisions, audits, contracts, reports, agreements, meeting minutes, Acts, conferences, drafts, Ministerial Orders, Orders in Council, budgets, a speech from the throne, licensing, committees, applications, news releases, and newspaper clippings.

According to the Government of Alberta’s Records Retention and Disposition Schedule 2002/041, which pertains to Ministers’ Offices, “all Ministers` records created before April 1, 1995, regardless of whether they were Departmental and Cabinet records or Personal and Constituency records belong to the Minister in question.” Consequently, all of the records in accession PR1993.0026 and PR2009.0784 are considered the private records of Elaine McCoy and have been treated as such.

Records in PR1993.0026 have not been processed.