The Iron Lady is No More

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed away from a stroke – she was 87.

I remember the Iron Lady – given that nickname by the tabloid British press for her unwavering stance on her economic policies which at the time caused protests in the United Kingdom, but were hailed as revolutionary and necessary changes by the leaders of Canada, the States and even the former Soviet Union.

Ah, the former USSR – or Soviet Union. When Baroness Thatcher was Prime Minister, the world was a very different place.

Thatcher’s Conservative Prime Minister reign ran from 1979 to 1990, right through the Cold War, and long before cell phones, smartphones, tablets and most of the mobile devices we take for granted today existed.

The Cold War was a frightful period for the world. It was a time when the world’s superpowers – The United States of America and the Soviet Union – were constantly at loggerheads over the way the world should be run, and at anytime, the world was ready to take cover from a nuclear strike by either superpower.

Or as ready as you could realistically be for the end of the world.

Fear over a nuclear holocaust was real. If you look back at the movies of the time, many were either about such a holocaust, or the fear of coming to the brink of such a holocaust, as the trigger-happy American’s edged closer to “DEFCON 1” – the codename used to signal the start of a nuclear war.

There was a now legendary tale about how a flock of Canadian Geese raised the DEFCON threat levels, when they showed up on NORAD’s radar, but failed to identify themselves, despite the NORAD commander’s urgent calls on the radio.

Luckily, a couple of F-16 fighter pilots were dispatched, and once they saw it was a flock of birds and not missiles or enemy fighter planes, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, maybe even had a bit of a chuckle.

Yes, Margaret Thatcher’s Iron Lady stance governed through some very interesting times. She worked on the world stage with other charismatic characters, trying to balance the power while maintaining the peace in very uncertain times.

If a flock of Canadian Geese could set off alarm bells, it’s any wonder how we somehow managed to avoid a nuclear war.

Or is it?

Before the world of instant always on and always available communications, the true test of political leadership was character.

Back in Margaret Thatcher’s time, email, cell phones, smartphones and other mobile devices just didn’t exist. So what really made a leader a great leader, was compassion, empathy, honesty, and above all else, being charismatic and an exceptional communicator.

Margaret Thatcher certainly was on par with the other great leaders of the time – American President Ronald Reagan (who’s nickname was “the great communicator,”) and the deep voiced and chiselled chin Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who’s sense of humor often stole the show at press events where all three were in attendance.

The ever prim and proper Margaret Thatcher was like the stern but loving mother, keeping President Reagan and Prime Minister Mulroney on track and out of trouble.

The Cold War has long since ended, and the type of leadership our world needs has since changed forever.

However, the compassion, empathy, honesty and charismatic communications of the Iron Lady will be missed, in our new world of social media, and always on digital communications.