McIntosh was no stranger to controversy. Amongst many items which became the topic of public debate during her tenure as Education Minister was the whole question of patriotic exercises in schools and the significance of the monarchy in Canada. In 1998, school principals brought to her attention that the portion of the Manitoba Schools Act concerning patriotic exercises was not being followed in many schools. McIntosh won the support of the Monarchists across the province, and the ire of Canadian republicans, when she sent out a memo to School Divisions reminding them that the Act was to be followed.