Hannah Gale

Hannah "Annie" Elizabeth Rolinson Gale (December 29, 1876 – August 7, 1970) was a politician in Calgary, Alberta and Canada. Mrs. Gale was born in Netherton, West Midlands, England. In 1901, she and her husband, William,[1] and their two sons moved from England to Canada. The family eventually settled Calgary in 1912 .[2]

On December 10, 1917, Gale was elected as an alderman for the City of Calgary municipal council. Gale was the first woman in Canada to be elected to a position at any level of government.

In the 1921 Alberta provincial election she ran as an Independent Labor candidate in the Calgary provincial electoral district. Gale was defeated, finishing 16th out of 20 candidates.

In 1924 she was elected as a Public School Trustee for the Calgary Board of Education. She resigned in 1925 when she moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where she lived until her death in 1970.

In 1983 a Junior High School named after her in the Calgary community of Whitehorn.

Annie Gale was the first alderman in Canada when she won a seat in the 1917 Calgary civic election. The following year she was elected acting-mayor by her fellow members on the city council. For the first time in the British Empire, a woman performed the duties of a mayor.

Early life and Personal life

Hannah Rolinson (who was soon nicknamed Annie) was born in the West Midlands of England. The daughter of a merchant grocer and his wife, Annie attended a school for girls and passed the Oxford Entrance Examination. Being a woman, she was not able to become a student at Oxford, and began helping run the family business after her father died of pneumonia. In 1901, Annie married an engineer named William Gale, and the couple eventually decided to join family members who had emigrated to Canada. The Gales and their two young sons arrived in Calgary, Alberta in 1912.

Career

After moving to Calgary in 1912, Annie soon began taking an active role in her new community, working to solve problems related to the poor quality and high costs of fresh vegetables as well as the lack of affordable heat and free hospitals. She organized Canada's first Women's Ratepayers' Association and, after women in Alberta gained the right to vote in 1916, she accepted the group's invitation to run in the 1917 city council election in Calgary. At a time when there were no women in government across Canada however Gale managed to win a seat.

The Canadian Magazine noted in a 1917 article about Mrs. Gale, "She is exactly the type of woman who should be in public life--a feminine, gracious, magnetic personality without aggression or bombast; a woman with a charming platform manner which does not come off the instant she reaches the bottom step and stands on the floor of the hall; the type of woman of whom the West is justly proud." Annie Gale served three terms as alderman, though she was unable to win a seat in the 1921 provincial election in Alberta.

Gale was a hard-working alderman who was determined to make changes, and she never shied away from controversy. As she once said, "I have always believed that the mission of women in political life was to clean up politics." She retired from the Calgary City Council in 1923 after making many notable contributions to her adopted home. Annie and her husband William moved to Vancouver in hopes that the coastal climate would be beneficial for his health.

The famous feminist Nellie McClung paid tribute to Annie Gale and her many contributions to her community: "Women haven't an easy time in public life and Mrs. Gale has played her part courageously and intelligently. Mrs. Gale could always be depended upon to take a sane, forward, dependable view. Her tact and charming personality have carried her through many difficulties. Women haven't an easy time in public life but they count the cost before they enter. Mrs. Gale has always upheld the standards of womanhood and we cherish the hope that she will come back to us again."

In 2016, a boardroom was named after her as the "Annie Gale Boardroom", located in Calgary.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Sanderson, Kay (1999). 200 Remarkable Alberta Women. Calgary: Famous Five Foundation. p. 28.
  2. ↑ Foran, Max (1982). Calgary, Canada's frontier metropolis : an illustrated history. Windsor Publications. p. 196. ISBN 0-89781-055-4.
  3. ↑ "Calgary honours first female 'alderman' Annie Gale with boardroom naming - Calgary - CBC News". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 2016-09-14.

External links

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