02 Margaret

When Margaret was elected to Edmonton City Council in 1933, she was 23 years old. Of note, she is the youngest person to ever be a member of council.

By the age of 23, Margaret had already earned three degrees. She received her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Alberta in 1930 and received her Bachelor of Law 2 years later, in addition to her School of Education diploma. After graduating from University, she entered law practice with the firm of Newell, Lindsay and Ford.

She was the National representative of the Edmonton Branch of the League Against War and Fascism and was a member of the Canadian Commonwealth Federation (CCF). While attending a peace conference in Brussels in 1936, she decided to sneak into Spain through a tunnel on the French border to get a first hand look at the fighting. Controversy arose when it was reported that she picked up a gun and fired it into the direction of Fascist guards. She was defeated in the 1937 election and she believed that the bad publicity surrounding her trip to Spain led to her defeat.

After being defeated, she unsuccessfully tried to run for provincial politics three times. She then worked as a reporter for the Montreal Gazette before falling ill as a result of Cushings disease. She spent many years in the United States receiving treatments.

She never married and while and while in Edmonton, she stayed with her parents. She died in 1992 in Vancouver, British Colombia, at the age of 82.

Sources: Edmonton Journal, October 7.1970, and July 1996, Edmonton Bulletin, June 10, 1936.