The Women of Calgary City Council

Early Years

Mary Dover was born Mary Cross on July 1, 1905, the same year Alberta joined Confederation. Her father was Montreal-born Alfred Earnest Cross (A.E. Cross), a pioneer rancher and businessman who founded the city’s first brewing plant and was one of the ‘Big Four’ who founded the Calgary Stampede in 1912. Her mother, Helen “Nell” Rothney Macleod, was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel James Macleod, a prominent figure who helped found and name Fort Calgary in 1875.

Dover’s childhood in the infant City of Calgary was something of myth. She spent her early years in the family home, the Cross Residence in Inglewood near her father’s brewery (now the well-known Rouge Restaurant). She attended school at the prestigious St. Hilda’s School for girls, the only Protestant Girls' School in the Territories and one of the first private schools in Calgary. In the 1920s she took roles in movies filmed in Calgary and region – in 1926 she acted as a stunt rider for Hollywood star Barbara Kent in ‘His Destiny’, one of the first Hollywood films that was filmed on location in Calgary.

Mary married Grant (Melville Dover), a Ford Motor Co. executive, in 1930. Throughout the 1930s they travelled all over Southeast Asia and settled in Ceylon where Mary gave birth to their only child, David. Their travels were interrupted by the sudden outbreak of World War II in 1939, and Mary and David returned to Calgary while Melville stayed with the military to fight overseas.

In 1941 Mary dove into volunteer work for the war effort as a recruiting officer for the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (C.W.A.C.). Mary was a member of C.W.A.C. from its inception until her retirement in 1945. In March 1942 the C.W.A.C. became an official militia corps. Mary was quoted as saying: “It's not a women's organization … It is simply another corps in the army. Its members have a heavy responsibility”. In December 1942 Mary sailed with the first C.W.A.C. contingent to England and served there during the Blitz. She was later promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding the C.W.A.C. training base in Kitchener, Ontario. One of the first female officers in Canada, Mary led many programs during her military service to inspire and support women in the military, building greater understanding in the community of the important role women could play.

Mary was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on June 12, 1946. She was amongst 20 members of the navy, army, air force, and auxiliary services from Alberta who were included in King George’s birthday honours list – it is interesting to note that half of the 20 new military honorees were Calgarians.

Dover’s interest in politics began with a run for a seat in parliament under the Liberal party in 1947. While she was unsuccessful in her attempt, it left her available to run and win a seat on City Council and leave her mark on Calgary. Dover remained very active in community work after her discharge from the C.W.A.C. – in 1946, Dover was elected president of the Women’s Canadian Club, and in June of 1949 she was re-elected second vice-president of the Alberta Legion.

First Campaign

Dover was endorsed for the 1949 municipal election by the C.G.A. (Civic Government Association) and was one of six candidates they presented as a slate. Dover was proclaimed as “a service worker of unusual administrative ability, whose efforts devoted to improving this community are known from one end of the city to the other”. In a November 1949 campaign radio address, Dover spoke of the need for town planning to “eliminate the city dump, the narrow bridges, and the traffic congestion”. She voiced the needs for “a new long-range plan which will serve a city that some people think will reach a quarter of a million. The hospital and the incinerator are to my mind the most important at the moment”.

Dover was elected to council the same year as the City’s youngest mayor (to date) – Don Mackay, who had been an alderman since 1945. Dover was elected on the 13th count in what was called a “long, drawn-out struggle for the eight vacant seats on city council”. Ballot counting and re-counting occurred through election night (November 23) and continued until early afternoon the following day, when the final candidates were officially declared elected. Dover joined fellow woman Alderman Rose Wilkinson on council. The women were supported by opposing slates – Dover by the C.G.A, and Wilkinson now running as an Independent.

Early in her council tenure Dover got involved in a contentious issue that resonates today – that of compulsory vaccination. At a council meeting in April 1950 Dover suggested vaccinations be made compulsory for Calgarians. This prompted backlash, particularly from the Alberta Anti-Vivisection and Humane Education Society – it was reported that “the mayor, aldermen and school board … were deluged with pamphlets, letters and resolutions” from the Society. The main resolution “asked Mayor D. H. Mackay to get full guarantee of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, serums and anti-toxins from manufacturers, doctors and so on”, and demanded “that no further expenditures of Calgary taxpayers’ money shall be wasted on purchases of these poisonous products, on their administration by doctors or nurses, or on falsely publicizing them as preventatives and cures for diseases”.

In response, a Calgary Herald editorial pointed out that while the anti-vivisectionists “argue … that anti-smallpox vaccination is useless, they do not explain how smallpox has been practically stamped out in most civilized countries since vaccination became a universal practise”. The author of the letter referred to the anti-vaccination campaign as having “the appearance of a fanatical and dangerous agitation which ought to be explicitly and publicly condemned”. Regardless of her advocacy and campaigning on the matter, Dover’s push for compulsory vaccination was defeated and the issue would not arise again during her tenure on council.

Dover was re-elected again without much fanfare or issue on November 22, 1951. In June of 1953 Dover was one of three candidates to represent the federal Liberals in the Calgary South constituency. She was defeated by local barrister Edward J McCormick, whose nomination she initially contested.

Possibly wounded by the federal loss, Dover chose not to seek a third consecutive term on Calgary council in 1953. She was nominated again as a Liberal candidate in the 1955 Alberta general election and campaigned hard to be elected but lost handily once again. Dover suffered another blow the summer of 1955 when her husband passed away in August.

Dover kept busy in community activities through the 1950s. She also continued to advocate for good and forward-looking city building, including the preservation of buildings of historical interest.

On September 21 Dover made her aspirations to return to politics official as she was chosen as a one of a slate of six aldermanic candidates to represent the United Citizens’ Association (formally replacing the old Civic Government Association). She was advertised as “a former Alderman, a perceptive critic of civic affairs, and a staunch individualist” who was “one of the first to make public her views on all issues, favours more local industry, better liquor laws, more beautiful buildings, and the Canadian Flag”. Dover’s campaign included a position “wholeheartedly in favour” of introducing fluoridation of the public water system.

Dover was elected on the seventh count on October 17, 1956. She was the only woman in the aldermanic race, joining fellow woman Alderman Isabella Stevens who was already on council (elected on an alternating term). An article from the October 18 Calgary Herald quoted Dover as being “terribly thrilled about being elected”. When questioned about women in politics, Dover said she believed more women should run for public office. “Mind you, I’m not a violent feminist. But we women have our place. I think women have a knack and a patience for detail that men often lack. Women take a lot more trouble to find out the answers to problems and when they make a decision they have a feeling of satisfaction, knowing they’ve put their best into it. It’s the way women’s minds work.”

Dover was an active and gregarious Alderman for the next four years on council (being elected once again in 1958). She was markedly interested in city building and urban planning issues – many that continue to resonate in Calgary today. She was an ardent supporter of refurbishing and repurposing old buildings rather than tearing them down. This included the Bruce Robinson building, an old warehouse structure located on 9th Avenue and 4th Street that Dover first tried to save by proposing investment and alternate use (the building was demolished in 1958).

She also directly petitioned Ernest Manning, premier of Alberta, to save one of Calgary’s oldest landmarks – the city’s original courthouse, located on 7th Avenue, constructed in 1888 and used as a courthouse until 1912. Dover submitted a petition to the province of allegedly over 100,000 signatures asking that the courthouse be retained, and in the spring of 1957 she persisted in having council unanimously vote to request the province declare the courthouse an historical site. Her efforts went unrewarded – an article in the Herald from September 1957 notes: “The premier wrote [Dover] that the property would be better put to use for new office buildings”. The courthouse was demolished 1958.

She advanced several city rejuvenation efforts, including greenspace and riverbank preservation and beautification efforts, as well as “the greatest tree planting program in its history” in 1958 (the neighbourhood of Elboya has Dover specifically to thank for mature trees lining its boulevards). One of her proposals was for the City to invest in a “depressed area west of 6th Street SE, south of the Bow River, and east of 2nd Street SE” – the area that would eventually become today’s East Village neighbourhood. Her early efforts to revitalize this and other “blighted areas in the city” were met with lukewarm interest and no support from her fellow councillors.

Dover constantly brought up matters of pedestrian safety, bringing the concerns of pedestrians across the city to the attention of council. She fought for lower vehicle traffic speeds, argued with traffic engineers to reintroduce “scramble lights” and even proposed that the city “solve its pedestrian problem by building overhead bridges … at busy intersections” – perhaps making her the earliest anticipator of Calgary’s famous Plus 15 system.

Other proposals and efforts made by Dover were remarkably forward thinking for her time – Dover recognized and understood the importance of funding mental health efforts and petitioned for a master planned university campus similar to the University of British Columbia.

As her term on council ended in September 1960, Dover first announced she would not be seeking another term on council. She was persuaded to change her mind, and her candidacy was warmly received; however, Dover had recently relocated to a new residence in Millarville, and with less than 24 hours to go before the nomination deadline, Dover had still not established whether she could legally seek re-election. It was ultimately determined that, no longer being a formal Calgary resident, Dover could not run for council again.

So ended Dover’s time on city council, though her influence on Calgary continued well into old age. She was granted an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Calgary in 1974, and the Canada Medal in 1977. In 1980 her 75th birthday was celebrated in grand fashion alongside festivities for Alberta’s 75th birthday. Dover died on June 8, 1994 (fittingly, in Calgary’s centennial year of initial incorporation), at the age of 88.