The Women of Calgary City Council: Annie Gale
Annie Gale was the first female alderman in Calgary and Canada
Early Years
Annie Gale was born Hannah Rolinson in Netherton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England. There has been some discrepancy about the actual year of her birth, but records made available in recent years point to the legitimate date being 29 Dec 1876. She married William Gale in 1900-1901 and they had two children – Henry Longhurst Gale, and William Esteen Gale.
Bumble Hole and Warrens Hall Local Nature Reserve – located on the outskirts of Netherton in the Dudley District, UK.
In 1912 Hannah and William made the lifechanging decision to move to Calgary, a burgeoning new city on the prairies about to experience its first true boom – a period of massive growth driven in part by the discovery of natural gas south of the city in Turner Valley. The Gales’ first recorded residency in Calgary was at 1717 27 Avenue SW in the developing community of Bankview (today their original Calgary home is the site of a low-rise apartment building). Only one of the Gales’ residences remain extant in Calgary, the Wilson Apartments located at 1537 14 Avenue SW. The Gales lived in apartment 7 of this building, only 5 years old at the time of their occupancy in 1918. By 1920, they had relocated to 829 13 Avenue SW (today the site of a parking lot).
The Margaree, formerly known as the Wilson Apartments.
In 1914, Mrs. Annie Gale and her son William pose beside their home at 1717 27th Avenue SW. Glenbow Archives.
While few records are readily available about Annie’s community involvement back in England, she became active in her new hometown right away. Annie was concerned about food quality and security in Calgary, and quickly became a member of the Vacant Lots Garden Club. The Club was an offshoot of a national movement of the same name, and was inaugurated in Calgary in 1911 and formally organized in 1914. The club allowed residents to garden on empty civic property for a small fee with a twofold purpose: beautification and food supply.
Bridgeland / Riverside Vacant Lot Garden (present day). Inventory of Evaluated Historic Resources.
Establishment of the Vacant Lots Garden Club was conceived as an important resource, especially for working-class citizens, in securing a high quality, affordable and local food supply through increased self-sufficiency. At the time, most produce sold in Calgary was imported from BC and was both expensive and of poor quality. Gale wanted Calgarians – herself among them – to have the opportunity to be more self-sufficient in the production of their food. She was later instrumental in establishing a municipal market in Calgary in 1914 which sold locally grown produce, some of which came from the vacant lot gardens.
Members of town planning commission, Calgary, Alberta. Gale can be seen in 3rd row, centre, identifiable by her hat. CA 1915-16. Glenbow Archives.
Gale founded the Consumer’s League to advance the creation of that public market. She became president of St Mark’s Anglican Church Women’s Guild and captain of the Calgary Women’s cricket team. In 1916 she formed the Women's Ratepayers Association of Calgary – the first association of its kind in Canada. The Association’s specific aims were the municipalization of hospitals, upgrading of children’s playgrounds, and improvement in streetcar service.
Gale was often featured in the women’s section of the Calgary Herald, titled “In Woman’s World” – a social page that featured wedding announcements and local events, along with advertisements expressly directed to mothers and wives. Her exploits as a local personality were noted – “A feast of lovliness characterised the beauty of the tableaux presented at the entertainment last evening by St. Mark’s guild in the King Edward School … Special mention is due to the president of the guild, Mrs. Gale under whose direction the programme was prepared.”– as well as her personal adventures – “Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Gale and children are going to Banff for a few weeks about July 5”.
By 1916, Gale was a recognized and well-respected figure, a mere 4 years after her relocation to Calgary. Her advocacy and activism in the public sphere overlapped with a remarkable time of change, that is, the advancement of the women’s vote across Canada.
One Small Step for Gale…
Gale’s entry into the world of politics happened at a riveting time of momentous change in Alberta. On April 19, 1916, years of hard work by famous suffragettes such as Emily Murphy and Nellie McClung finally led to some women securing the provincial vote in Alberta, only the third province in the country to grant women this right.
It is important to note that, while the legislation was entitled “An Act to provide for Equal Suffrage”, equality was not universal. Black women were included in the 1916 declaration and were permitted to vote, though racial discrimination did impede their ability to exercise their franchise. However, most Women of Colour (including Chinese, Japanese, and East Indian women) could not vote until the late 1940s, and Indigenous women deemed “status Indians” by the government were not permitted to vote until 1960.
Alberta Women Attending Parliament During Passage of Equal Suffrage Bill. March 1, 1916. Government of Alberta.
By the end of 1915, with the women’s right to vote imminent, the conversation quickly turned to women representing women in public office. The Calgary Herald mused over what voters might call a “feminine member of next year’s council?”. Suggestions included ‘aldermanette’, ‘aldermaness’, and ‘alderlady’. Questions arose about whether the aldermen would be permitted to smoke their cigars in council chambers with a woman present. Gale, however, wasn’t fussed about the differences – while she was interested in ascertaining “the opinion of the public with reference to women being on the city council”, she clearly stated that, should she run for council, “she would not expect any special courtesies, as she recognized that when women entered public life they must submit to criticism the same as men”.
Given her public activities and growing recognition, Gale was a natural choice as people debated which Calgary woman could provide best representation on city council. However, Gale’s candidacy and eventual legacy as Calgary’s first female alderman was not guaranteed. She was clearly reluctant to run. In May 1917, Gale was featured in a Herald article that noted “prominent public-spirited women believe women should have more training before they go to the Legislature”. The article noted that “there are not a few, but large number of bright, intelligent women in the city and to them the citizens are indebted for having used their brain, time and energy for the better laws regarding the women and children of this province”. However, the general consensus of the prominent women interviewed was thus: while women “appreciate the franchise … there is too much yet for the women to learn before they step right out into politics”.
Gale was one of several prominent women quoted in the article in her capacity as President of the Women Ratepayers Association and honorary president of the Consumers League. Cited as “Mrs. W.J. Gale”, she stated:
“I have no vision of the women on the floor of the legislature, nor in the council chamber … I think that the women by the exercise of the franchise will use it to place men in the legislature who will represent the ideals of the women better in the future than they have in the past. We want men who will embody our ideals in good government, and by good government I mean the looking after the weak as well as the strong”.
Heedless of her opinion, Annie was endorsed as a candidate for Council by the Federated Ratepayers’ Association in October 1917 – her nomination was backed by influential figures in Calgary of the day, including Richard Bedford Bennett, Alice Jamieson, and Bob Edwards. The Herald reported that the endorsement was “a proposition Mrs. Gale objected to, but finally consented to give the matter consideration”.
Gale's initial stance regarding running for office might be surprising given that, before the end of the year, she would become the first elected female alderman in the British Empire. Perhaps Gale did truly believe women were qualified for and deserved a place in civic politics, but was attempting to play a kind of quiet game in order to get elected – leaning on the general public notion at the time that "she was not popularly perceived as a rampant feminist or noisome reformer”. Once elected, she drove the things she cared about hard, earning her a reputation as “one of the City’s most outspoken and fearless reformers”. Her re-election in successive civic elections pointed to her enduring popularity.
The First Campaign
Gale was fiercely non-partisan as she entered the world of politics and determined to “keep independent of party politics”. She believed that “as long as [women] were independent of a party they would remain a power to be considered”. Later she reiterated this conviction, stating in 1919:
“I belong to no party and feel that women should be independent of all party ties and party politics. We should be freelancers steering our course by the righteousness and justice of the causes before us. Be perfectly disinterested in our work and we should then be of untold benefit in raising the tone of public service which is generally considered to be badly in need of such elevation”.
Gale’s campaign was noted as “marked more by reasonableness and humour than by feminist politics”. Her humour came through in the disarming way she answered questions during public city campaign meetings. When asked why she thought women could run affairs more economically than men, she began to enumerate some of the things they would not do, remarking that “women did not talk so much”. Gale later explained that “in England the women workers were more careful about the little things in their work, as for instance, not wasting nearly so much oil as the men in oiling machinery… she thought women should earn the same pay for their work as men”.
Coverage of her campaign was not without sexism – some discreet, some blatant. On December 8, 1917 Bob Edwards, editor of the Eye Opener (a newspaper irregularly published between 1904-1922 whose contents were often challenged as libelous) published an image of Gale in the December 8, 1917 edition of his paper with the quote:
“Now cast your lamps over this cut and tell us if you can possibly resist voting for the original, who is the only woman running for the Calgary City Council. Mrs. Gale has for several years been active in many public movements of a useful nature and enjoys the distinction of having been the president of the first woman ratepayers’ association formed in this city. This lady has all the mental and businesslike qualifications required for a seat on Calgary’s council board. Her husband is Mr. W. J. Gale, the well-known civil engineer.”
Election Day
1917 was a difficult year to have an inspiring breakthrough election – poverty, unemployment, and inflation of prices created high stress scenarios on the Calgary public already dealing with the incessant demands of World War I.
Along with being the first and only woman candidate on the ballot, Gale had another hurdle she had to surmount. For the 1917 election Calgary opted to move from block voting, a non-proportional voting system, to a single transferrable vote system (preferential balloting) designed to better approach proportional representation. This was a more complicated voting system, made clear by the number of spoiled ballots counted on election day. The Herald noted that “the other reason for delay was that the clerks were sadly puzzled themselves in may instances in counting the vote, and it was long after midnight when the last of the ballot boxes was brought in”.
The mayor in 1917, MC Costello, won by a mere 11 vote majority. Calgary Herald, 11 Dec 1917.
In 1917 mayors were elected to a one-year term only, and aldermen were elected to alternating two year terms. Civic voting, therefore, took place annually – the unrelenting frequency of elections might have been an early driver of voter apathy in Calgary civic elections. The system, while ultimately fairer and better representative, was not embraced by everyone.
Election Results. Calgary Herald, 11 Dec 1917.
Gale won her seat on the second round of ballot counting – she did not secure enough votes on the first count to guarantee her election, receiving only 334 votes as the voter’s “first choice” out of a necessary 520 required to be declared elected on the first count. She was not officially elected until the morning of December 11th, the day after the election, when the last count was finally completed.
Time on Council
Once elected, Gale was a tireless member of Calgary Council. She was a voracious champion for causes she first fought for as a community advocate – causes that looked after “the weak as well as the strong”. This included strengthening the public market that had been established thanks to her efforts as a member of the Consumers’ League; dismantling milk monopolies and ensuring the essential product could be sold more easily and competitively throughout Calgary; as well as public health measures, which extended beyond municipalization of hospitals to include changing the status quo about how the police dealt with those experiencing mental illness and bringing an elevated level of medical care to women in rural areas. She clashed often with public health officials, including over the control of infectious disease outbreaks.
One specific issue she championed during her time in office was the affordable provision of safe milk in Calgary. Like many of her causes, her fortitude and persistence were met with resistance. In April 1919, amongst allegations a fellow Alderman had made it possible for the Union Milk Company to secure a practical monopoly of the milk business in Calgary (allegations included the Union Milk Company lobbying for a bylaw that would prohibit a private citizen from keeping a cow), Gale made a public plea to establish small branch depots of the city market on the outskirts of the city, “specifically for the sale of milk”. Gale knew of “many families in the city … who had, in the past year had no fresh milk in their houses. Tinned milks and milk powder had been the only articles of that nature used and the children were consequently being deprived of their rightful food.”
At the April 08 meeting of Council, Gale said, “the city council is very fond of voting money for various objects … and it is only the other day that the council decided to spend $2500 for an automobile for the mayor in order that he might take visitors round the city”. She pressed her fellow Aldermen, saying: “I cannot see … why $5000 cannot be voted for pure and cheap milk for the children of Calgary”. She related at the meeting that she had “taken this matter up nine months ago” but was no nearer getting the depots.
Progress was slow, but she was relentless in her persistence on this topic. In December 1919 Gale was still urging “the importance of milk depots being established in the city, where a plentiful supply of this commodity of good quality could be secured”.
Although Gale had to consistently push for adequate budget for the milk depot Calgary did eventually open a “pure milk depot” in 1921 at the city’s public health office for “all who require milk for their children and cannot afford to pay for it will be supplied free of charge”.
Gale was also concerned about the safety of Calgary’s milk supply. She wished to ensure Calgary’s milk supply came solely from cows that had undergone tuberculin testing. Tuberculosis in cows became a serious health issue that arose at the end of the 1910s, and in response to this (as well as promises of aid from the Department of Agriculture to assist cities and towns who wished to restrict their milk supply coming only from cows that had undergone tuberculin testing) the City proposed a bylaw that would require all milk in Calgary to come from animals that passed the tuberculin test, whether it was pasteurized or not.
Calgary Herald article – March 22 1921.
This led to an uproar from the dairymen of the region and Alberta more broadly. Dairymen argued tuberculin testing was a costly imposition being asked of them. It was costly, without doubt – some figures put the cost at $100,000, and it was anticipated that if such measures were put in place across the country, the cost would “represent a sum little short of the national debt”.
Letters from milk producers and individuals alike poured into the Herald. The bylaw was called a “drastic measure” that would “put a large number of dairymen completely out of business”, and the tuberculin test was called a “craze”; one letter to the editor wondered how “many people in Calgary suffer from TB on account of milk?”
The Alberta Dairymen’s Association (ADA) and some of Gale’s fellow aldermen believed it would be satisfactory to sell milk that had either been pasteurized or came from tuberculin tested cows. Pasteurization was generally thought to kill diseases such as tuberculosis in milk, and Secretary H. Higgenbotham of the ADA maintained most milk sold in Calgary was pasteurized, and it was from unpasteurized milk that most of the danger arose.
However, pasteurization of milk was not compulsory, so there was certainly elevated risk that milk tainted with tuberculosis could be sold to unsuspecting Calgarians. Gale was opposed to compulsory pasteurization, as it created a hardship for small producers who sold milk from tested animals. “I want small producers to have the opportunity of selling pure good new milk, tuberculin tested, and at 14c a quart. There are more than 1000 cows in our city limits owned by more than 300 small producers.” And while pasteurization was likely to render milk perfectly safe, Gale wanted to stop the risk of tuberculosis at the source, claiming “[t]he matter is one of vital importance to children and baby welfare.”
“Give us new and pure milk,” she was quoted as saying, “and we women can do the pasteurizing.”
Dairymen argued “all the rumpus had been caused by Alderman Mrs. Gale attempting to bring cheaper milk to Calgary”. Members of the Calgary District Milk Producers’ Association met with Gale in March 1921 in her position as representative of the city’s milk committee in connection with the enforcement of the tuberculin testing of cows, and arrived at the conclusion there will be more cooperation between the City and producers.
Although pushback continued and motions of dismissal were considered, on the 4th of April 1921, bylaw 2060 “A Bylaw Respecting Dairy and Milk” was passed, which included the clause:
Bylaw 2060. Shared from City of Calgary Archives.
“No milk shall be sold [distributed or consumed] in the City of Calgary from cows, unless such cows have been tested for tuberculosis by a duly authorized veterinary surgeon of the Government of the Dominion of Canada by means of the tuberculin test prescribed by the regulations of the Dominion of Canada relating to tuberculosis, and have not re-acted to such test.”
It was certainly a battle which Gale, in her persistence, had won.
Later Years
By 1923 Gale seemed somewhat worn down by her time in civic politics. When the League of Women Voters endorsed Gale once again, she was reluctant to accept the nomination as “she felt that in the past it had not been the women’s vote that had elected her, and now that men seemed inclined to push women aside, the seeming indifference of the women was most discouraging”. Gale noted she had tried for six years to encourage women to follow her lead and run for council:
“… but the women seem afraid to assume the responsibility. Of course I know it means a sacrifice, but sacrifice has its own reward. What I would like to see is two women on the city council and two women on the school board, but if the women do not support their own sex and take more interest in their affairs, I am afraid it will be very difficult to get women to stand for office, and the consequences of their apathy may be very serious in time to come.”
Instead of running for a council seat once again, Gale turned her attentions to the Calgary Public School Board. She ran as a trustee in the 1924 municipal election and continued to champion public health and welfare issues within the school system.
Ladies' cricket club, Calgary, Alberta. – Mrs. Annie Gale, captain, seated second row, fourth from left. 1922.