• Mulroney appointed Campbell minister of defence in January 1993. She was the first woman in Canadian history to hold this job. Campbell was also given the responsibility of helming Veteran Affairs and was made vice-chair of the cabinet's Committee on Foreign and Defence Policy.



• In April 1993, four Canadian peacemakers were taken into custody for the murder of a Somali man. Campbell was often criticized for failing to respond, downplaying and covering up the events of the Somalia affair. Campbell defended her position, saying she was not involved in a cover-up. When the Somalia Inquiry was cut short, she was angry she never had a public forum to defend herself against the allegations.



• In her role as defence minister, Campbell also had to defend the Conservative Party's decision to purchase pricey anti-submarine, defence helicopters. Many argued that with the close of the Cold War, the helicopters were unnecessary. Campbell however maintained that the helicopters were a high-priority and told the House of Commons, "To have frigates without shipboard helicopters is like having an aircraft carrier without aircraft." After facing much criticism, Campbell later reduced the helicopter order from 50 to 43.



• In 1994, the Liberals cancelled the controversial helicopter contract.



• Many Canadians came to know Campbell because of a 1990 Barbara Woodley portrait in which she stood bare-shouldered behind her justice minister robes, as shown in this clip. On the day Woodley came to take Campbell's photograph, Campbell had just picked up her justice minister robes. Woodley proposed taking her picture with her cello but Campbell said that another photographer had already taken her portrait in that style and accordingly suggested that she put on her new robes. Woodley recommended that Campbell hold the robes in front of her.



• "We both realized that holding the robes while I was fully dressed would look silly, but we had no idea at the time that her photo of me, bare-shouldered and holding the robes on a hanger would become so notorious two years later," she recalled in Time and Chance.



• Campbell also recalled when the National Arts Centre launched an exhibit on the Canadian prime ministers and included the portrait in November 1992. At the launch party, Campbell bumped into former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. "'I had just picked up my QC robes,' I began. 'Ah,' came that familiar nasal voice, 'and what were you doing before you picked them up?'"



• The Ottawa Citizen reviewed the exhibition and ran the photo on its front page with the caption: "Doing justice to art."



• NDP MP Lynn Hunter likened Campbell to the racy pop singer Madonna. The British press picked up on the moniker, running it with the photo. Campbell recalled in Time and Chance that the Italian press reported that she had posed with nude men because of a mistranslation of "bare shoulders."



• In 1993, the Woodley photograph sold for $12,500 at an auction in Vancouver.