November 2014
Congratulations to George Gray, who was elected Reeve of the RM of Dufferin in the October 22nd Municipal elections. George has been a long-time CDMHAC member and one of our staunchest supporters of local heritage. He comes by this interest naturally. George is the great-grandson of the George Gray for whom Graysville was named. He and his wife Noreen live on one of the oldest Century Farms in the municipality where they incorporated the original Gray dwelling into their own home.
Left–Right: Diane Gillingham (Roseisle Memorial Rose Garden), Candace Bergen (MP), Blaine Petersen (MLA) with George Gray (then Deputy Reeve, CDMHAC representative) at the WWI Anniversary service and monument dedication last July 1 in Roseisle.We are delighted to have Georges Picton (Town of Carman) and Barrie Fraser (RM of Dufferin) back as Council representatives on the CDMHAC. Congratulations to both of them on being returned by acclamation in the recent municipal elections. Sheldon Harder, also elected in Ward 4 by acclamation, will serve as an alternate for the RM of Dufferin and will be a welcome addition to the committee.
December 2015
Centennial of Vote for Manitoba Women. On Jan. 28, 1916, Manitoba became the first province in Canada to grant women the right to vote in provincial elections. Our Carman/Dufferin connection to the event is through one of our own People and Family Stories, Sir Rodmond P. Roblin, whose declaration that “Nice women don’t want the vote!” helped fuel the successful campaign of women’s activists such as Nellie McClung.
Rodmond Palen Roblin
Nellie McClung
In 1914, McClung played the role of then Premier Roblin in a mock Women’s Parliament in which women debated whether men should have the right to vote or to other rights currently denied to women. McClung was a witty speaker and a great mimic. Her mastery of Premier Roblin’s well-known mannerisms and speech and her clever reversal of his own rhetoric to argue against granting men the right to vote, underlined the absurdity of his position. The performance brought down the house with laughter and received front-page coverage in local newspapers. The opposition Liberal Party espoused the cause; when the Roblin government was defeated in the 1915 election, the Liberals passed the first legislation in Canada granting women the vote.
Equality for women was an idea whose time had come and Nellie McClung continued to serve as a vocal messenger. She went west to Alberta, where she became an MLA and one the “Famous Five” Alberta women who initiated and won the ‘Persons Case’ to have women recognized for the first time as persons under the BNA Act. She also worked to secure women’s property rights and the Dower Act, factory safety legislation, old age pensions and public health nursing services. She campaigned for the rights of Aboriginal and Asian women, acceptance of European immigrants during WWII and ordination of women in the United Church. McClung was the first woman on the CBC Board of Governors and, in 1938, she was the only woman on the Canadian delegation to the League of Nations.
Among Nellie McClung’s more memorable one-liners were:
“People still speak of womanhood as if it were a disease.”
“Disturbers are never popular—nobody ever really loved an alarm clock in action—no matter how grateful they may have been afterwards for its kind services!”
“Never explain; never retract; never apologize. Get the job done and let them howl.”
For more information, see:
Memorable Manitobans: Rodmond P. Roblin and Nellie McClung
Nellie McClung Foundation
Heritage Minutes: Nellie McClung