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 In January of 2010, our community lost a brilliant, courageous and passionate young woman to neuro-endocrine cancer. At 23 years old, Jaimie Anderson had a bright future and promising political career ahead of her that was tragically cut short, but not before she made a lasting impression of her own on Parliament Hill.
As the daughter of Rick Anderson, a political strategist and former aide to Preston Manning, and Michelle Williams, whose father was once national director of the Liberal Party of Canada, Jaimie's passion for politics was nurtured from a young age. For as much time as she was able, Jaimie spent summers working in politics, including interning in an MP's office, where she demonstrated an innate and deep caring for politics and public life.
"Jaimie approached being a parliamentary intern as though it was the prime minister's job," said her father, Rick Anderson. "She loved it and thought it was the most important role in the world. She came to particularly love doing constituent work … (which) she thought of as being the point of it all."
Now, Jaimie's brief but memorable time working on the Hill is part of a legacy that will support other promising young politicos through the Jaimie Anderson Parliamentary Internship Fund, established in her honour at the Community Foundation of Ottawa. As she was especially interested in helping constituents and improving grassroots democracy, the annual summer internship will provide Canadian university students with the opportunity to work in an MP's office on constituency case work and democratic reform.
Co-chaired by Jaimie's uncle, Bruce Anderson, a political analyst and national pollster, and CBC TV anchor Peter Mansbridge, the memorial fund crosses partisan lines in much the same way as Jaimie's upbringing. This was especially evident at a fundraiser held in her honour in Sept. 2010 at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec. A country-and-western themed celebration of Jaimie's life, the event featured performances by Sneezy Waters, Lonesome Paul, Anders Drerup and Kelly Prescott, and was attended by an array of representatives of all of Canada's political parties.
Like the fund itself, the benefit far surpassed original expectations, raising over $75,000. With an initial goal of reaching $50,000, Jaimie's family has been overwhelmed by the support the fund has received, well exceeding $100,000 in the first year. "We've been deeply moved by the response to Jaimie's passing and the support we've received for this internship," says Bruce Anderson. "Jaimie would be pleased that other promising young people will have the opportunity to make a difference through her legacy."
Introduced to the Community Foundation by his lawyer, Bruce was especially pleased to be able to leave the administrative details of managing the fund to the Foundation so that he and the Advisory Committee could focus their energies on fundraising and promoting the cause of the fund. And those efforts have certainly paid off. Aside from the wide circle of family and friends who made donations, the group was able to raise a significant amount of donations through a highly effective social media campaign.
In fact, the majority of gifts to the fund have been made through the Community Foundation's online donation system, another tool that has helped ease the committee's burden. "The Foundation's ability to accept gifts electronically and issue tax receipts in real time has been a godsend for us," says Bruce. "Knowing that process is in place and running smoothly has allowed us to focus on raising the money in time to get the internship program off the ground in record time." The first internship in Jaimie's name will give a promising student their political start over the summer of 2011.
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