The Women of Calgary City Council: 1980s
The Women of Calgary City Council
1980
The 1980 Municipal Election would see some changes, most notably the departure of Nomi Whalen and Anna Blough. Pat Donnelly, Barb Scott and Sue Higgins would hold on to their seats and would be joined by Elaine Paul Husband. Husband represented Ward 7 and would sit for one term. Born in 1939 in Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, Husband moved to Edmonton to study at the MacTavish Business College and at University of Alberta. Initially studying Developmental Psychology, Husband would later become a Master’s candidate in the fields of contemporary and Mexican history.
Elaine Husband, Calgary Herald.
Husband spent time working with youth and community organizations, including the Junior Red Cross (a predecessor of the Children’s Hospitals), the company of Young Canadians, Opportunities for Youth, and the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Resident’s Committee. Husband also worked as the Prairie Region Coordinator for the National Film Board. Husband won Ward 7 against two other candidates in what was a closely contested election by just 442 votes after her estranged husband, John “Greg” MacGregor Husband, chose not to run again. Newspapers from the time described her as the real force behind Greg in the first place, having organized a massive team of 80 volunteers for his campaign. As Alderman, Husband served on the Development Appeal Board, The Calgary Housing Corporation, the Heritage Advisory Board, the Calgary Regional Arts Foundation amongst many others.
Husband’s time on Council was short lived, only lasting one term, but was memorable for some head-to-head arguments, most notably in December 1981 when Mayor Ralph Klein accused her of trying to sabotage the LRT route through her ward. Columnists also pegged her as a pick-and-choose Alderman that favoured complaints made by Hillhurst-Sunnyside residents over those of any other community in her Ward. This was seen in her opposition to the eventual route of the LRT going through Kensington – which residents at the time opposed despite it being the most economical – while also ignoring complaints made by Westgate’s community association when residential densities in the neighbourhood were increased to accommodate cooperative family housing. After burning some bridges with her colleagues on Council and the CBE, Husband declined to run for a second term.
After her time on Council, Husband worked in media and had a weekly column in the Herald, along with frequent work with radio and TV.
1983
1983 would see a net loss in women on Council, as only three would remain. Sue Higgins chose not to run this year for Council, but rather attempted to take down Ralph Klein as he was up for re-election after his first term as Mayor. Higgins would take only nine per cent of the election against Klein’s staggering landslide of 85 per cent. Higgins’s campaign was an honest and clean one and she had no regrets about running, and vowed to return to Council in some form in the next election, which she did. Higgins believed she simply misread Klein’s popularity at the time. It is believed she was the first woman to ever run for the seat in Calgary. She would be off Council for the next three years but would win the Ward 12 seat in 1986.
Sue Higgins salutes Ralph Klein after he soundly defeated her in the 1983 mayoral election. It's believed she was the first woman to ever run for the seat in Calgary. Image from the Calgary Herald.
Also gone from Council in ‘83 would be Elaine Husband and Pat Donnelly. In fact, the only woman to retain her seat was Barb Scott. Scott would be joined by two newcomers: Theresa Catherine Baxter (Ward 2) and Verna Diane Scown Hunter (Ward 14). Pat Donnelly chose not to run in 1983 after spending nearly a decade on Council, decrying a “left-wing” trend on Council because of Husband’s and Bob Hawkesworth’s association with the NDP. Donnelly helped coordinate Klein’s re-election campaign.
Theresa Baxter was born in 1946 in Toronto, and went to the University of Toronto where she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning, while also being awarded a Masters in History. Her studies initially led her to Ontario’s Ministries of Natural Resources; and Culture and Recreation. She later worked as a planner for the City of Halifax and the City of Calgary. Baxter would then run for Council in 1983 and again in 1986.
Theresa Baxter. Calgary Herald.
After Ralph Klein’s resignation in 1989, Don Hartman briefly became Mayor after a unanimous Council vote. Hartman had a complicated relationship with the rest of Council, once leading to a near-revolt to remove him from office, and another time where he published an audit accusing various Aldermen of wasting public dollars on improper trips, including Baxter.
Hartman’s tirades during his brief tenure and his hostility towards Baxter and other Aldermen likely contributed to her decision to not seek a third term; that and a desire to avoid the label of “career politician,” as former Calgary Herald columnist Don Martin would put it. Despite this, Baxter did run provincially in 1989 for the New Democrats in the Calgary-Foothills riding, losing to Patricia Black of the Progressive Conservatives. After leaving Council, Baxter taught environmental design at the University of Calgary. She passed away in 2006 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Former alderman John Schmal said she was “one of the key people in making sure [Nose Hill Park] wasn’t developed.” She was described by Sue Higgins, her colleague on Council, as “driven – anything that she did, it had to be absolutely right. If it wasn’t going to be done absolutely right, she wasn’t going to do it.”
Verna Diane Scown Hunter, best known as Diane Hunter, was elected in 1983 in Ward 14. Born in 1942 in Acme, Alberta, Hunter moved to Calgary when she was 10. Her father was famed Calgary auctioneer Vern Scown. She attended the Universities of Calgary and Alberta, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Sociology. After completing these degrees, Hunter taught with the Edmonton School Board before being appointed as a sessional instructor at Mount Royal College between 1971 to 1978. She then established Tempera Developments before winning the race for Ward 14.
Prior to serving as Alderman, Hunter served as Vice-Chairman of the Calgary Police Commission; President of the Canadian Mental Health Association, South Central Alberta Region; Director of the Calgary Social Planning Council and a member of the University of Calgary Senate.
Diane Hunter. Calgary Herald.
Hunter spearheaded an early computer security policy review to ensure that the City was ready for the computer age. She had identified a series of gaps in the existing policy, and that it was limited in scope. Hunter also backed Barb Scott’s bid to pressure the province to introduce mandatory seatbelt legislation, which was deemed contentious at the time in 1985.
In 1987, Hunter stood up for her Ward, which was disproportionately affected by cuts to funding of ambulance services. Much of Hunter’s time on Council can be boiled down to dragging Calgary and Alberta, kicking and screaming, along with the times.
Ralph Klein and Diane Hunter in the Calgary Herald.
Like Theresa Baxter, Diane Hunter would serve two terms as Alderman. Instead of immediately retiring, Hunter ran for the Mayor’s office, which was up for grabs after Klein’s retirement and Hartman’s infamous seven-month tenure. She ultimately finished third behind Al Duerr and John Currie, but ahead of Nomi Whalen and Don Hartman.
1986
1986 saw the return of some familiar faces. Theresa Baxter, Barb Scott and Diane Hunter would be rejoined by Ann Blough and Sue Higgins, both of whom had previously served on Council.
Sue Higgins had an unsuccessful run for Mayor in 1983 and decided to return to Council, this time serving as Alderman for Ward 12.
Ann Blough had served from 1977-1980 before “retiring” and serving as a school board trustee for two terms. Blough was encouraged to return to Council by anonymous politicians who were unhappy with then-Ward 13 Alderman Jim Bell, who had become controversial for allegedly being unaccountable and inaccessible to his constituents. Ann Blough retained popularity from her first time on Council and used that for her comeback.
She had some controversial ideas, including an uncompromising anti-abortion stance. In 1989, the Calgary Birth Control Association weathered attacks from anti-abortion groups and from Blough, who by her own admission had become a single-issue Alderman.
Blough participated in the “Satanic Panic,” when some parents in the ‘80s and ‘90s believed that Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and other fantasy games were gateways to Satanic rituals. Blough would lose Ward 13 in 1989 to Glen Johnston by nearly 2,000 votes, which Johnston believed boiled down to growing animosity from constituents regarding her staunch anti-abortion stance.
Ann Blough after losing Ward 13 election to Glen Johnston. Calgary Herald.
1989
1989 brought in the highest number of women on Council to date. This was after some significant turnover on Council, with half of Council losing their seats including Theresa Baxter, Ann Blough and Diane Hunter.
1986 was still a time when Council was a part-time job for many, including John Havelock, who had initially won in 1986. Havelock accepted a transfer in the private sector to Chicago, which led to the first ever by-election in Calgary’s history in 1988. Having narrowly been defeated by Havelock in 1986 by a margin of 254 votes, Yvonne Fritz ran again. This time, she would be successful running against Shannon Pitts, Ziad Chebib and John E. Mason.
Yvonne Fritz was born in Saskatoon, and prior to entering politics she worked as a Registered Nurse at Calgary General Hospital for 20 years. Fritz won again in the regular election of 1989, where she promised to fight privatization of city services and to improve the hours of the Lougheed Hospital. In light of Fritz taking over from someone who still treated the position as a part-time position, Fritz said that whoever thought the job was still part-time at this point in Calgary’s history and size was kidding themselves.
It is evident that women on Council in the 1980s often faced implicit bias and received negative media coverage compared to their male counterparts. Despite Fritz’s popularity within her Ward, she and other women councilors still faced misogynistic attacks from media and other reactive voices. In the Calgary Herald, former columnist Don Martin described her in his 1990 Council “Report Card” as having an “irritating little-lost-girl act,” and that she was “no longer a one-issue voice bleating” regarding hours at the Peter Lougheed Hospital.
City Council “Report Card” in the Calgary Herald. 1990.
