Shirley Eleanor McLoughlin (June 25, 1930 – July 20, 2018) was a Canadian politician, who was the leader of the British Columbia Liberal Party from 1981 to 1983.
[3] She ran as the Liberal Party of Canada's candidate in Comox—Powell River in the 1980 federal election,[4] losing to Ray Skelly.
She was elected leader of the BC Liberals at their leadership convention on May 25, 1981, over lawyer Tom Finkelstein and farmer Roland Bouwman.
[2] McLoughlin took over the leadership at a time when the party was in unprecedented crisis; under her predecessor Jev Tothill, the party had run just five candidates provincewide in the 1979 election, and had failed to win a single seat in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for the first time in its history.
[5] She was defeated in her own dual-member district of Vancouver Centre by New Democrats Emery Barnes and Gary Lauk.