Nancy MacBeth

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Nancy MacBeth, born Nancy Elliott on December 29, 1948, in Edmonton, Alberta, is a Canadian politician. She led the Alberta Liberal Party and was Leader of the Opposition from 1998 to 2001, becoming Alberta’s first female opposition leader.

Earlier, she was a Progressive Conservative MLA from 1986 to 1993 for Edmonton-Glenora and served as Minister of Education (1986–1988) and Minister of Health (1988–1992) under Premier Don Getty. She ran for the PC leadership in 1992, but Ralph Klein won; she did not run in the 1993 election and left politics for a while.

MacBeth studied at the University of Alberta (BA in French and Russian) and Université Laval (French Canadian literature). She married Hilliard MacBeth and became known as Nancy MacBeth; she was previously married to Stefan Betkowski.

She returned to politics in 1998 as the Liberal leader and the MLA for Edmonton-McClung. She tried to win broad support by appealing to voters unhappy with Klein’s government, but the Liberals struggled. In the 2001 election, the Liberals won only seven seats and MacBeth lost her own seat. The party also carried about a $1 million debt, and she left politics. Ken Nicol later became the Liberal leader.