[4] McIntosh worked as an elementary school teacher and freelance commercial artist for several years, and was also a political commentator on CBC TV's Friday Night News "Week In Review" segment in 1985-86.
In June 1988, she was hired as Special Assistant to Progressive Conservative leader Gary Filmon, who had become Manitoba's Premier the previous month.
Mainly diagnostic in nature, these standards tests also counted for a portion of students' final marks at the upper levels of learning.
Amongst many items which became the topic of public debate during her tenure as Education Minister was the whole question of patriotic exercises in schools and the significance of the monarchy in Canada.
McIntosh won the support of the Monarchists across the province, and the ire of Canadian republicans, when she sent out a memo to School Divisions reminding them that the Act was to be followed.
[7] It became a provincial controversy, with many complaining that semestered school timetables made such exercises difficult to successfully accomplish since not all students would be present for them.
In one memorable moment during this controversy, the entire opposition NDP caucus stood and with great gusto sang all the verses of God Save the Queen in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.
In the final cabinet shuffle of Filmon's government on February 5, 1999, McIntosh was named Minister of Environment with responsibility for the Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Act.
In 1999 and 2000, McIntosh was Marketing Director for Winnipeg's Portsmouth Retirement Residence during its construction, development and start up, ensuring that accommodation was appropriate for prospective clients' needs.
Her first book, "What Do You Do If You Don't Die?," published by Heartland Associates of Manitoba in 2008, is the story of geological engineer and award winning athlete Steven Fletcher's struggle to return to a full life after becoming paralyzed from the neck down.
McIntosh has indicated that the book is a tribute, not just to Hilkka Nygard; but to all Canadian immigrant mothers, to the lands they loved and left behind and to the great country to which they came.
It includes stories and opinions from advocates and opponents of PAD and the text of the two Bills Fletcher introduced as an MP into the Canadian House of Commons on the topic.
At the time of writing the Parliament of Canada had not acted upon the Canadian Supreme Court's order to develop PAD legislation.