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Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell is a candidate for “high level” UN job: report

Canada has had it's share of battles with the United Nations in recent years so it might be nice to a 'friend' on the inside.

According to Embassy News, former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Kim Campbell has confirmed that the federal government is "nominating" her to be a candidate for the position of Executive Director for the UN's Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women — also known as UN Women.

Several English-language news sources in Azerbaijan published stories April 12 suggesting that Ms. Campbell was a main candidate for the job.

“It's a marvelous opportunity for anyone who wants to work for the advancement of women, but there will be many strong candidates, and it's very early in the process,” Ms. Campbell said in an emailed statement.

According to the UN Women website, the successful candidate will oversee an annual budget of US$500 million and work on international gender equality and women empowerment initiatives and monitoring.

The full Embassy News story can be found here.

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Campbell, 65, is certainly one of Canada's most successful female politicians.

After being elected to the House of Commons in 1988, she went on to become Canada’s first woman Minister of Justice, Canada’s first woman Minister of National Defense, the Progressive Conservative party’s first woman leader, and in 1993, Canada’s first woman prime minister.

Unfortunately for Campbell, her meteoric rise was followed by a spectacular fall. Months
after taking the top job in the country, Campbell was obliged to call a snap election which saw her once mighty party reduced to only two seats.

After the election defeat, Campbell retreated to academia, receiving a fellowship at the Harvard Institute of Politics. Then, in 1996, Prime Minister Chretien appointed Campbell to a four-year term as Canadian Consul General in Los Angeles.

Since 2000, Campbell has worked with international non-profit groups promoting democracy around the world. She has served as Chair for both the Council of Women World Leaders and the International Women's Forum.

[ Related: 4 former prime ministers, 4 rebukes of Stephen Harper's foreign policy ]

Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet is the outgoing Executive Director of UN Women.

According to USA Today, she will be running for her country's presidency, again, in the Chilean elections in November.

(Photo courtesy of the Canadian Press)

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