The Women of Calgary City Council

1971

In the 1970s, all Council terms were extended to three years. Council elections happened simultaneously and a Single Transferrable Vote/Proportional Representation system was introduced to all wards. Only one woman was elected to council in 1971, though that one woman was Barbara Ann Scott. Barb Scott was the first woman elected to City Council since 1959.

Born in 1931 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Scott had earned a Masters in Urban Sociology from Boston University. Scott worked in Toronto and Edmonton before moving to Calgary in 1965.

In 1971, Scott was already making a name for herself. Complaints and pleas against the Alberta Association of Social Workers made the news, with social work students and professionals alike making their frustrations with the union known. Scott, a social research consultant, took the students’ side and agreed with their plea for a more political role for social workers.

In April of 1971, Scott was a member of a YWCA panel discussing recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. She pointed to a failure amongst women who could but chose not to run for public offices. Already an Aldermanic candidate at this point, Scott was one of the only women to run for office in Calgary for over a decade, with the exception of school board trustees. In the 1971, only three other women ran for office in Calgary: M.J. Chorny, Leone Wellwood, and Pat Donnelly – two of whom would end up eventually representing their wards.

At the beginning of the election cycle, Scott featured in a debate with other women candidates, hosted by Margaret Chisholm and the Calgary Women’s Liberal Association. Scott was the only Aldermanic candidate to appear at an event that was described as a quiet but dignified affair, whereas the other debates became rowdy with outrageous accusations and disruptive hecklers.

Election day in 1971 was hit by cold weather and snow. Scott, who felt that her strength lay with seniors in what was then Ward 4 (which later split into two and her part became Ward 8.)

Before the 1974 election, there were only 6 wards in Calgary, with two Aldermen representing each. Ward Four would be represented by two new faces, Barb Scott and Ed Oman. Oman served two terms in office, narrowly defeating Brian Lee while Scott earned more than 11,000 votes. Both Oman and Scott credited their victories to their Get Out the Vote activities, both having personally driven voters to polling stations.

1971 was Scott’s first election, but it certainly would not be her last as she served on council for 24 years, longer than any other councillor aside from Dale Hodges.

While on Council, Scott spearheaded and backed various initiatives targeted at supporting Calgary’s vulnerable. She helped establish safe houses for vulnerable teens, established a dental clinic to address the needs of the homeless, and even with things we now take for granted like sidewalk curb cuts for improved mobility access.

After winning her election in 1971, Scott made it a point that she ran as a person, not emphasizing women’s “liberationist” ideology, and that she ran to represent her ward, not women. This echoed Mary Dover, the last woman to sit on Council, who said she ran as a person, and that men do not run as men.

1974

It would not be long before Barb Scott would be joined by other women on Council. The floodgates opened three years later, with Irene Leone Wellwood, Virnetta Nelson Anderson, and Marguerite Patricia Shook Donnelly all winning elections in Wards 1 (Donelly), 3 (Anderson), 4 (Scott), and 6 (Wellwood.)

1974 saw the end of the Single Transferrable Vote/Proportional Representation system and moved to today’s First Past the Post Block Voting system. Each Ward had two Councillors this year, with four women winning seats on Council. There were seven female candidates in total, many of whom were likely inspired by Scott’s success in the previous year. As a sign of the times, each female candidate for Council was frequently referred to as a housewife, rather than advocate, community leader, or board member.

As Barb Scott made history as the longest serving woman on Council, Virnetta Anderson herself made history when she was elected to Ward 3 as Calgary’s first Black Councillor. She was also one of the first visible minorities to serve on Council, following George Ho Lem, a fierce advocate for Calgary’s Chinese community. While on Council, Anderson participated in a fact-finding mission to Germany which led to the early development of Calgary’s CTrain. She was also involved in the feasibility study of the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts.

Born in Monticello, Arkansas, Anderson first moved to Calgary with her husband, Ezzrett “Sugarfoot” Anderson, who played with the Calgary Stampeders in the late 1940s. In fact, her first political campaign – the 1974 election – was run by another former Stampeder, Herm Harrison. They credited her victory, technically second place in Ward Three, to her active role in community affairs. Leading up to the election, Anderson was the director of the 1974 United Fund.

Going into the 1977 election, Anderson had lost some popularity, criticized for her attendance record at Council by local media like the Herald (which Mayor Rod Sykes blamed directly for her eventual defeat.) Anderson ended up losing to Craig Reid in what was described as the only upset from the election. While she was defeated in 1977, Mayor Rod Sykes praised her for her intellectual honesty and her refusal to play Council games, instead just doing her best to represent her city and her Ward.

After her defeat, Anderson returned to various roles of community involvement, including sitting on the board of directors for the Calgary Centre for the Performing Arts which she helped create, along with multiple advisory roles for the City. She eventually went onto real estate while serving on multiple boards. Heavily involved in her community, Anderson stayed in Calgary for the remainder of her life. In 2006, she was brought to hospital and passed away due to complications relating to an infection.

Marguerite Patricia Shook Donnelly, better known as Pat Donnelly was elected in 1974 and would serve two more terms after that. Her 1980 re-election was her last, despite having the highest popular vote in the whole city. Donnelly was keenly interested in City planning, transportation, and housing. Before serving on Council, Donnelly served in the RCAF Women’s Division during the Second World War, after which she attended the University of Toronto and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. After which, she moved to Calgary and became heavily involved in the community.

Donnelly won Ward 1 in 1974 as the favourite from the beginning. By the time polls closed, it was clear she was set to win the first Ward 1 chair, with the second being a tossup between Jerry Kwan and Pat Ryan, the latter initially being declared winner but the former eventually coming out ahead once all ballots were counted. This was her second time running for office, her first being in 1971. Donnelly even had mayor Rod Sykes’s endorsement, which Donnelly made it a point to highlight that she had never asked for the endorsement .

A supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, Donnelly had multiple roles in conservative institutions. Along with working with provincial PC constituencies of Calgary Bow, Foothills, and West, along with the federal riding of Calgary Palliser. She also served as an executive on the Calgary Oil Wives Club and was heavily involved in the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire.

Finally, 1974 also brought in Leone Wellwood in Ward 6. Wellwood served as executive director of Calgary’s YWCA and was a public servant in Queen’s Park before moving west. Wellwood made great strides for the YWCA, including the opening of the YWCA in downtown Calgary, and was an advocate for fiscal responsibility while on Council. While on Council, Wellwood worked with Barb Scott to consolidate the numerous organizations that received city funding but worked on the same or similar issues. While Wellwood’s career was dedicated to helping those in need, she also spent time as a teacher at an Anglican Mission School, which we now know as residential schools. Wellwood only served one term on City Council, proving to be unpopular stemming from her attendance record, land annexation voting records and voting for a midterm salary increase. Wellwood passed away somewhat suddenly at the age of 49 in 1979.

1977

The 1977 Municipal Election brought more notable changes to Calgary’s electoral landscape. 1974 brought an end to STV/PR and went with today’s first past the post system, whereas 1977 introduced the modern ward system we have to this day. 1971 and ’74 were unique elections as each ward was represented by two Aldermen, though there were only six wards. 1977 introduced eight more wards to Calgary and moving forward there would only be one Alderman per Ward.

Virnetta Anderson and Leone Wellwood both left Council; Anderson faced criticism for her attendance record (attended 71 per cent of council meetings) and Wellwood’s health and advanced age resulted in the two leaving. Anderson and Wellwood leaving ushered in many more women, however, and both Barb Scott and Pat Donnelly would remain on Council.

Scott and Donnelly would be joined by four other women in 1977, making it the first time five women were on Council at once. There would only be a handful of times where the same amount of women or more would be on Council. The 1977 Calgary City Council saw the additions of Nomi Whalen, Ann Blough and Sue Higgins.

Nomi Whalen served one term as Councillor of Ward 12 and was the ward’s incumbent Alderman. Before serving on Council, Whalen went to the UBC Teacher’s College in Victoria, where she received a Bachelor’s in Physical Education and an Education diploma, and then moved to Calgary and taught at the Viscount Bennett School. After time running the Britannia Women’s Health Club and the Victoria Park Community Arts School, Whalen was appointed to Alberta’s first Human Rights Commission in 1973. Four years later, Whalen would win Ward 12 handily – more than four thousand votes than the runner up, Grace Martens. Whalen at the time still had one more year on the provincial Human Rights Commission and also had work in marketing, and made it clear from day one that she would not be viewed as a full-time alderman – something that was apparently seen as a negative in the ‘70s. While on Council, Whalen served as chairman of the Aldermanic Resources Committee, which handled closed door negotiations and deliberations. One term on Council was enough, with Whalen sometimes at odds with others on Council, mostly due to the non-smoking rule put in place that both she and Barb Scott were against. Nomi Whalen left in 1980 with both relief and concern; relief of not working on Council again and concern over continued need for advocacy for her Ward.

After leaving Council, Whalen served multiple roles, including the Directorship of the Family Mediation Service of Alberta, Co-Chairman of the Salvation Army’s Residential Campaign, and most notably, as a registered provincial Marriage Commissioner. In that role, Whalen performed numerous unofficial same-sex celebrations years before same-sex marriage would become legal in Alberta.

Ann Blough was born in Chicago but moved to Calgary at an indeterminate time before hand. Public information on Blough is lacking, though she won Ward 13’s inaugural election in 1977, would serve the one term but return again to Council in 1986. During her first time around on Council, Blough sat on the Heritage Park Society, the Zoological Society, School Board Liaison Committee. Blough would not return to Council in 1980 and would have to wait six years for re-election.

Blough was initially in a tight three-way race between herself, Fred Krueger and Brian Lightburn. However, by time the election came and went, Blough was nearly a thousand votes ahead of the runner-up, Krueger. Blough, who was only 33 when she won the election and thus making her the youngest woman to serve on Council, won on a platform based on concerns surrounding the LRT. The men running against Blough were all disappointed for differing reasons having lost to her. Lightfield suggested that there was a “female vote” against three male candidates, which he saw as unfortunate. The Herald pointed out that a recent story about Lightfield’s recent bankruptcy probably did more damage. Third place Krueger had nothing to say, but fourth placed Brian Birchall complained about Blough’s victory, saying that Council had “too many housewives.”

Finally, Sue Higgins saw her first Council victory in 1977. She would go on to win many more times from 1977 all the way to the 1998 election. She retired in 2001 rather than seek re-election. Never a fan of the “Alderman” title, Higgins self-described as “Alder-Broad.” She can be credited with starting the discussion regarding the title of Alderman, and whether it should be retired in favour of gender-neutral terms like Councillor. There is a gap in her time on Council from 1983 to 1986 as she ran for mayor but ultimately lost to Ralph Klein.

Higgins’s first victory in 1977 is a good reminder that signs and lawns do not vote, but people do. Her main competitor, Ron LaJeunesse, had far more lawn signs out than Higgins did – and to her admission, probably knocked more doors than her, too. Higgins attributed her win to her organizational skills, which she earned from years of volunteering and two terms as the head of the United Way residential drive.

The “highly quotable” Higgins was seen as a straight-talker who was outspoken and blunt. Dale Hodges, who unseated Barb Scott as longest-serving individual on City Council, described Higgins as a force unto herself. Higgins would occasionally find herself at odds with other aldermen due to her blunt nature. She was an enthusiastic smoker and fiercely objected to non-smoking rules put into council. In 1978, she believed that she and other smokers should be allowed to smoke during late council meetings after dinner hours, to which one of her male counterparts, Pat Ryan, objected, suggesting she needed a soother, not cigarettes. In 2000, regarding an outdoor smoking ban, she said, “If the whole idea is to prevent pollution then don’t drive your car outdoors because that pollutes my air a lot more than my cigarettes.” (April 25, 2000)

Higgins, along with a small handful of aldermen throughout time, was also often against budget increases and notions of pay raises for aldermen, which understandably put her at odds with her colleagues.

The ‘70s would end on a much different note than previous decades. Not only had the absence of women on Council been corrected, but the last election of the decade would see the highest number of women to date elected to council.

Sources

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