Name Pamela McDougall | ||
Pamela Ann McDougall (9 May 1925 - 4 October 2015) was a Canadian former diplomat.
McDougall attended Glebe Collegiate in Ottawa and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Mount Allison University and a graduate degree from the University of Toronto. McDougall elected not to pursue a career in chemistry, accepting, instead, a position as a grade 3 clerk in the Department of External Affairs. McDougall rose through the ranks of the department, becoming a grade 1 foreign service officer in 1952.
In 1958 and 1959 McDougall represented Canada on the trilateral International Control Commission for Vietnam (the other members being India and Poland). Her rapport with these two countries served her well in her subsequent appointments. Between 1961 and 1963 she served as first secretary and later counselor at the Canadian High Commission in India. In 1968 she was appointed ambassador to Poland, becoming the second Canadian woman to serve as an ambassador. Her tenure in Warsaw coincided with a number of crises in the Middle East, including the Six Day War and crises in the Eastern Block, including the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
McDougall returned to Ottawa in 1971, joining the Privy Council as an assistant secretary. In 1974 she returned to External Affairs as a bureau director general. In 1979 she was appointed deputy minister the Department of National Health and Welfare by Prime Minister Joe Clark.
In 1980 McDougall reached the peak of her career in the civil service when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau picked her to lead the Royal Commission on Conditions of Foreign Service. Trudeau specifically directed McDougall to consider "the aspirations of women in Canadian society". In writing her report, McDougall traveled around the world and interviewed sixty percent of the Canadian foreign service and their spouses.
After presenting her report in 1981 McDougall retired from public service. She served for some years on the boards of Carleton University and the Royal Ottawa Hospital. In 1987 she married Paul Mayer, a retired Lieutenant Colonel whom she had met in Vietnam three decades earlier.