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To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians.

Hedy Fry brags that she can still dance in eight-inch heels and looks decades younger than her 75 years. She’s been mocked as a flake, accused of self-aggrandizing hubris, and has elicited disapproval from social conservatives for her enthusiastic endorsement of Vancouver’s vibrant gay community. Few politicians spend their 65th birthday dressed as a dancehall queen on a Gay Pride Parade float surrounded by bare-chested cowboys riding a mechanical bull. One thing all acknowledge about this national symbol of inclusive, feminist and progressive politics, however, is that she’s formidable. She has won eight consecutive federal elections.

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Fry is the longest-serving woman in parliament. She launched in 1993 as a giant-killer. She ran as a Liberal, defeating the sitting Tory prime minister, Kim Campbell, who had herself succeeded powerful Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Pat Carney. Since then, Fry has drubbed high-profile challengers from left, right and centre. “Underestimate Hedy Fry at your peril,” mused charismatic — and rueful — NDP candidate Svend Robinson after she handed him his political head on a platter and his first defeat in 25 years. “She is a very formidable foe.”