Editing Jeanne Sauvé (section)

==Parliamentary career==
[[File:The Canadian House of Commons.jpg|thumb|right|The [[House of Commons of Canada]], where Sauvé served as a [[Member of Parliament (Canada)|Member of Parliament]] and later [[Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada|Speaker of the House]], sitting in the chair at the far centre]]
It was the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal Party]] that wooed Sauvé into politics, asking her to run as a candidate in the Montreal riding of [[Ahuntsic (federal electoral district)|Ahuntsic]] during the [[1972 Canadian federal election|1972 federal election]]. Though she found campaigning arduous, saying: "I felt uneasy for the first time in my life when I was campaigning&nbsp;... I must say I had qualms about it myself",<ref name=HEx/> Sauvé won, becoming one of five female MPs. She was subsequently both sworn into the [[Queen's Privy Council for Canada|Queen's Privy Council]] and appointed as [[Minister of State (Canada)|Minister of State]] for Science and Technology in the Cabinet chaired by Pierre Trudeau, thus becoming the first woman from Quebec to become a minister of the Crown and the sole female in that Cabinet.<ref name=CBCWork>{{cite web| url=http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/jeanne-sauves-political-advice| title=CBC Digital Archives > Politics > Federal Politics > Jeanne Sauvé, a Woman of Firsts > Jeanne Sauvé's political advice| date=February 9, 2005| publisher=CBC| access-date=June 15, 2015}}</ref> Sauvé ran again in the [[1974 Canadian federal election|election two years later]], re-winning Ahuntsic, and was given the [[Minister of the Environment (Canada)|environment portfolio]] until 1975, when she was appointed [[Minister of Communications (Canada)|Minister of Communications]].

In the [[1979 Canadian federal election|1979 election]], Sauvé won the riding of [[Laval Centre|Laval-des-Rapides]], but the Liberals lost their majority in the commons to the [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada|Progressive Conservative Party]]; she thus lost her Cabinet position. She remained MP for her riding after the [[1980 Canadian federal election|federal election of 1980]], which saw both the Liberals returned to majority position.

===Speaker of the House of Commons===
Trudeau returned to position of prime minister in the [[32nd Canadian Parliament]], and selected Sauvé as his choice for the [[Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada|speaker of the House of Commons]].<ref name=CBCWork/> Because she strongly desired to campaign for the "No" forces in the weeks leading up to [[1980 Quebec referendum|Quebec's 1980 referendum on separation from Canada]], Sauvé initially refused the offer to run for the non-partisan position. But she eventually acquiesced after Trudeau convinced her that she was the right person for the job and she received permission from the leaders of all the parties in the House of Commons to engage in the federalist campaign in Quebec.<ref name=CBCSpeak>{{cite web| url=http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/speaker-sauve-still-learning| title=CBC Digital Archives > Politics > Federal Politics > Jeanne Sauvé, a Woman of Firsts > Speaker Sauvé 'still learning'| date=February 14, 2005| publisher=CBC| access-date=June 15, 2015}}</ref> She became the first female Speaker of the House.

In her early days as speaker, Sauvé often made mistakes with the names of MPs or the ridings they represented—once calling on the Prime Minister as the "leader of the opposition"—and occasionally miscarried procedural rulings, which led to MPs addressing her with increasing curtness. Further, all 32 of the [[New Democratic Party (Canada)|New Democratic Party]] MPs in the house walked out in protest of what they viewed as a bias on Sauvé's part; they felt she allowed Liberal MPs to ask more questions than those from any other party. In a CBC interview, Sauvé conceded that the NDP members may have been right that the Liberals may have been allowed more questions over two or three days, but, on the whole, each party received an equal number of opportunities. It was also speculated that MPs had taken to [[Showboat#Showboating|showboating]] for the television cameras that had recently been installed in the chamber.<ref name=CBCSpeak/>

Sauvé did, however, find success in implementing reforms that professionalised the speaker's tasks of managing expenses and staff for the House of Commons, cutting back on the excess bureaucracy, personnel, overtime waste, and costs she discovered upon her installation. Once the changes were made, Sauvé had reduced the commons' support personnel by 300 and saved $18&nbsp;million out of the annual expenses, all of which, to some, actually improved overall service. Sauvé was lauded, by MPs and the media alike, for her courage in challenging the establishment. Other MPs, though, stated that she had gone too far and balked at the resulting inconveniences, such as having to clear their own plates in the commons cafeteria. At the same time, Sauvé also established the first [[Day care|daycare]] for Parliament Hill staff, MPs, and senators.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/jeanne-sauve-madame-speaker| title=CBC Digital Archives > Politics > Federal Politics > Jeanne Sauvé, a Woman of Firsts > Jeanne Sauvé, Madame Speaker| date=February 14, 2005| publisher=CBC| access-date=June 15, 2015}}</ref>

She also presided over debates on [[Constitution of Canada|the constitution]], dealing with [[filibuster]]s and numerous [[Point of order|points of order]], as well as discussions over the proposed [[National Energy Program|Energy Security Act]], against which the [[Official Opposition (Canada)|loyal opposition]] mounted a counter-campaign that culminated in a two-week bell-ringing episode when the Conservatives' [[Parliamentary Whip|Whip]] refused to appear in the Commons to indicate that the opposition was ready for a vote. Despite pressure from the government that she intervene to break the deadlock, Sauvé maintained that it was up to the parties to resolve it themselves through negotiation.