One of B.C.'s most influential provincial politicians in the latter part of the 20th century has died.

Grace McCarthy held several cabinet posts and was a deputy premier in the Social Credit government.

A tireless promoter of the province, she spearheaded the development of the Vancouver Convention Centre and played a key role in Vancouver being selected to host the Expo 86 world's fair.

McCarthy was born in 1927, making her a contemporary of businessman Jimmy Pattison, who was president and CEO of Expo 86.

She passed away peacefully after coping with a brain tumour, according to a news release written by her friend Norman Stowe, managing director of the Pace Group.

McCarthy owned the Grayce's Florists chain and was a Vancouver park commissioner in the early 1960s. She was first elected to the legislature in 1966 in the constituency of Vancouver–Little Mountain.

In 1969 McCarthy was reelected but she went down to defeat in 1972 when the NDP won its first general election in B.C.

McCarthy spent the next three years working to revive her party, which came roaring back in 1975 to win a majority.

In 1986 McCarthy sought the Social Credit leadership after then premier Bill Bennett announced that he was leaving provincial politics.

She came third in the third round of balloting and threw her support behind the eventual winner, Bill Vander Zalm.

However, they had a falling out a couple of years later in the wake of news reports that Vander Zalm wanted his friend, businessman Peter Toigo, to buy the former Expo site. McCarthy and her hand-picked members on the board of the Crown corporation overseeing the sale felt that the best bid came from Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing.

The dispute led McCarthy to quit the cabinet and she sat out her term on the backbenches.

After Vander Zalm resigned, McCarthy again ran for party leader, this time losing to a Vander Zalm loyalist, Rita Johnston, who became B.C.'s first female premier.

The party was nearly obliterated in the 1991 election but McCarthy once again to tried to rebuild it. She finally became party leader in 1993 and was prepared to return to the legislature in a 1994 by-election in Matsqui.

However, she was upset by a Mazda Miata–driving young lawyer running for the B.C. Liberals named Mike de Jong. This cemented the B.C. Liberals' position as the Official Opposition and spelled the end of McCarthy's political career.

McCarthy kept her cool during some of the most tumultuous times in B.C. political history and through it all, she was ably supported by her husband Ray, who acted as her eyes and ears in Vancouver when she was busy in the legislature.

The 1994 by-election also marked the start of de Jong's long run in politics that has culminated in him becoming B.C.'s finance minister.

And yes, de Jong still owns the Miata that made him so famous in 1994.

McCarthy was the most powerful Vancouver provincial politician during the Socred era, even more so than long-time cabinet minister Pat McGeer. This made her a target of intense criticism from those who disliked the party's tight-fisted policies with the province's poorest residents, most notably during the government-restraint era of the early 1980s, while opening up financial floodgates to fund questionable megaprojects, such as northeast coal.

She also found herself in the midst of the "Gracie's finger" scandal of the early 1980s when an electoral boundary was drawn to include a long section jutting west in her constituency, which helped her reelection efforts.

Yet today, McCarthy's legacy is apparent in everything from the night lights on the Lions Gate Bridge to the name "SkyTrain" for the region's rapid-transit system. As tourism minister, she put Vancouver on the world stage, which has had huge ramifications for the city more than 20 years after she vanished from the provincial political scene.