Family values hit home for Hayes

Pro-family crusader Sharon Hayes resigns from Parliament for family reasons

By Marlene Skinner - Special to ChristianWeek

OTTAWA--"It was a tough decision but it had to be made," says Reform MP Sharon Hayes, who resigned her House of Commons seat to care for her ailing husband, Doug, who suffered a heart attack last April. Experimental medication used to treat his heart attack triggered a brain hemorrhage and stroke, which left him in a coma for five days.

"It just became impossible for me to perform a job that takes me 3,000 miles away from home while Doug is virtually having to redefine his life under new circumstances," says Hayes, 49, who has represented the B.C. riding of Port-Moody-Coquitlam for four years.

Lost mobility

Doug has lost some physical mobility and peripheral vision, and has to wear a helmet to prevent infection following surgery. Several times a week, the father of two has to be taken for physical therapy at a rehabilitation centre 45 minutes from the Hayes’ Coquitlam home.

Daughters Carolyn, 24, and Kathryn, 22, were at their father’s side while he was in intensive care, but Hayes says she was finding it impossible to balance her responsibilities to her constituents and to her husband of 27 years.

"It is with deep regret I now must choose between two tasks or else give less than my best to both," Hayes wrote in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. "The task I committed to 27 years ago must be that choice."

Reaction to Hayes’ resignation has been overwhelmingly supportive. Personal notes of encouragement from her constituents and from members of all political parties have flowed in. Hayes says she is deeply touched by the enthusiastic outpouring of feeling since her decision to devote all her time to Doug’s support and recovery became public.

Editorial | Vol. 11 No. 15 Index