Catherine Callbeck becomes premier of Prince Edward Island and the first woman to be elected in a general election as premier of a Canadian province.
Catherine Sophia Callbeck (born July 25, 1939) is a Canadian retired politician and the current and ninth Chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island.
She was the 28th premier of Prince Edward Island from 1993 to 1996, the third female premier in Canadian history, and the first to win a general election (the first female premier, Rita Johnston of British Columbia, became premier after winning the party leadership but lost the subsequent election; the second, Nellie Cournoyea of the Northwest Territories, was elected premier by MLAs following a non-partisan consensus government election). She was subsequently a member of the Senate of Canada from 1997 until her retirement in 2014.
Born in Central Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, the daughter of Ralph R. Callbeck and Ruth Campbell, she received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Mount Allison University in 1960 and a Bachelor of Education degree from Dalhousie University in 1962. She took post-graduate courses in business administration from Syracuse University.Callbeck was a business teacher in New Brunswick and Ontario before returning to the island to enter the family retail business.