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Ms. Karen Redman (BA 1978)

      The Kitchener-Waterloo community may know her best as the long-serving Liberal MP for Kitchener Centre, but Karen Redman (BA 1978) began her post-secondary education with plans to become an occupational therapist. Like many children of second-generation Canadian families, she was raised to set a high value on a university education. But after a freshman year spent taking all science courses, she felt uninspired. Knowing how much she loved to read, her mother suggested she switch into the English program at the University of Toronto, where she was studying at the time. There she had the chance to hear Northrop Frye lecture, an experience that made her realize how rich the study of literature could be. When she returned to Waterloo a year later to marry, she was determined to continue with her degree. After training as a legal secretary, she enrolled as a part-time English student at the University of Waterloo. “The school had a good reputation,” she says, “and the prospect of becoming a co-op student was very exciting.” Eventually attending full time, she did indeed become a co-op student and was thrilled to be hired for her initial work placement by The Globe and Mail. Before she could take up the position, life intervened in the form of her first pregnancy. Still, the co-op program opened her eyes to the career possibilities available to English graduates. (Retired professor Dr. Helen Ellis has similar recollections of how the co-op program changed students’ and faculty’s ideas of employment. Read her profile here.)

      Karen enjoyed the smaller class sizes at Waterloo and the variety of professors she encountered in them, a memorable example being Sister Leon White at St. Jerome’s. “She could teach all Chaucer’s bawdy bits with a totally straight face,” Karen laughs. “It was amazing.” She also learned a great deal from her linguistics professor, Harry Logan.

      After the birth of her first child, Karen balanced her love of reading and writing with parenthood by writing stories for her own children and working as a freelance writer. One of her favourite posts was a five-year stint as a creative writing teacher at Breithaupt Senior Citizens Centre. She admired her students’ frankness. “Nothing was off limits to them,” she remembers. “They would talk about anything.” From holding various jobs in the community—legal secretary, dental receptionist, and school board trustee in addition to creative writing instructor—Karen became involved in local politics, first as a Kitchener City Councillor and then as a Municipal Councillor. In 1997, she was approached to run for the federal Liberals. During her twelve years in Ottawa—her “first foray into partisan politics”—she was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the caucus, an eclectic mixture of Canadians that included ACTRA members, retired accountants, fishermen, and a former taxi driver among others. The experience came with many rewards and a few insights about women in politics. “Women don’t often self-identify as candidates, which makes mentoring terribly important,” she believes.