MacLeod inspires in her public fight with mental health struggles

As mental health issues were in the forefront last week during Bell Let’s Talk Day, Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod broke some of her media silence and sat down for an interview with TVO personality Steve Palkin.

MacLeod announced in 2022 that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and that she had been struggling with depression since 2014.

With her mental health struggles, the intensity of the campaign and the scrutiny of various groups who were protesting her and politically attacking her became too much. MacLeod said she suffered a mentalhealth crisis in May, which led her to take time off to look after her personal and mental well-being after winning her seat in the Queen’s Park legislature for the sixth straight time.

In an October interview, Palkin asked how MacLeod was. She replied that it depended on the minute, and that she was okay, but fragile. Palkin noted fragile was a word he had never heard used to describe her.

“They’ve seen me take my knocks and get back up again,” she told Palkin.

“They see me give a feisty answer at question period or ask a frightening question. But I’m a different person than that.”

Throughout her political career, MacLeod had always had a strong relationship with the Barrhaven Independent. The first indication for this publication that something was not entirely right with MacLeod happened on election day in 2014. MacLeod was an easy winner in what was then the riding of NepeanCarleton. The Progressive Conservative Party was not so fortunate. The Ontario Liberal Party was becoming less and less favourable to Ontario voters under the leadership of Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne. The Tories failed in that election, as they once again could not come up with a leader that the province could get behind.

MacLeod was visibly shaken as she briefly attended her victory party at the Black Dog Bistro in Manotick. She would not make eye contact with the Independent or other media.

MacLeod said in the interview that she had been struggling with depression before that time, with the first signs happening during the parliament between 2011-14.

“The only reason I say that now is I recognize I was losing my hair and I was probably in a state of mania,” MacLeod said. “But I definitely knew between 2014 and 2016 I was dealing with depression.”

MacLeod drew praise and was even called a hero by the head of the Canadian Mental Health Association for taking her battle with mental health issues public.

“It took a tremendous amount of courage,” Camille Quenneville, CEO of CMHA Ontario said in an interviews with the Ottawa Citizen Tuesday. “I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Lisa in the past and I can tell you that she did a tremendous service by speaking out, which was exceptionally brave.

“She was so honest and genuine and really gracious about it. That’s going to help many people who are struggling, who are reluctant to speak out or to tell loved ones.”

In last week’s interview with Palkin, MacLeod said she wrote herself a letter to say she would not run in the Feb. 23 election.

That was nearly one year ago. She said time kept going by, and she ran again. It was not an easy campaign for her, and she was getting mental health help during the campaign.

“You’re actually in the middle of an election campaign with your psychiatrist taking layers of you away and trying to depoliticize you as a politician,” she said.

MacLeod is still guarded and sheltered from the public and the media while she focuses on getting better. She did host a Christmas pancake breakfast for supporters in Barrhaven in early December. She was in good spirits and seemed like the old Lisa MacLeod – a big smile, a big voice, and a big hug for everyone.

“Maybe let’s not judge people,” she told Palkin. “It’s okay not to be okay, or mental health is health. That’s not a slogan for just one day a year.”