Kashmiri Bhatta

Online Chat

Charlotte Elizabeth Whitton OC CBE (March 8, 1896 – January 25, 1975) was a Canadian feminist and mayor of Ottawa. She was the first woman mayor of a major city in Canada, serving from 1951 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1964. Whitton was a Canadian social policy pioneer, leader and commentator, as well as a journalist and writer.

Early life and education

Charlotte Elizabeth Hazeltyne Whitton was born in Renfrew, Ontario, a small Ottawa Valley town about 100 km northwest of Ottawa.

She attended Queen's University, where she was the star of the women's hockey team, and was known as the fastest skater in the league.[citation needed] At Queen's, she also served as editor of the Queen's Journal newspaper in 1917; and was the newspaper's first female editor. She was a top student, winning several scholarships at Queen's. She earned her Master of Arts degree in 1917.

Career and accomplishments

From Queen's, she became a civil servant as the private secretary for Thomas Low, MP and Minister of Trade in Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's first government.

When Low lost his parliamentary seat, Whitton then focused on her role as founding director (1922) of the Canadian Council on Child Welfare, and worked there to 1941. This became the Canadian Welfare Council, now the Canadian Council on Social Development, and helped bring about a wide array of new legislation to help children and immigrants.

In 1934, Whitton was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the 1934 New Year Honours.

She served on the League of Nations Social Questions Committee.

Whitton was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Queen's in 1941.

She published two books in 1943 (see below).

Despite her strong views on women's equality, Whitton was a strong social conservative, and did not support making divorce easier. She was a regular columnist in Ottawa's daily newspapers.

Political career

Whitton was elected to Ottawa's Board of Control in 1950, leading the city-wide polls, and started her term on January 1, 1951.

Upon the unexpected death of mayor Grenville Goodwin in August of the same year, only some eight months into his term, Whitton was immediately appointed acting mayor, and on 30 September 1951 was confirmed by city council to remain mayor until the end of the normal three-year term.

Whitton is sometimes mistakenly credited as the first woman ever to serve as a mayor in Canada,[7] but this distinction is in fact held by Barbara Hanley, who became mayor of the small Northern Ontario town of Webbwood in 1936. Whitton is the first woman to serve as mayor of a large Canadian city.

Whitton was elected Ottawa mayor in the general municipal election in her own right in 1953, serving until 1956. She turned it into a full-time job.

She ran again for mayor of Ottawa in 1960, and was elected, serving until 1964, when she was defeated on her try for re-election.

Whitton never married, but lived for years in a Boston marriage living arrangement with Margaret Grier (1892 – December 9, 1947). Her relationship with Grier was not widespread public knowledge until 1999, 24 years after Whitton's death, when the National Archives of Canada publicly released the last of her personal papers, including many intimate personal letters between Whitton and Grier. The release of these papers sparked much debate in the Canadian media about whether the relationship between Whitton and Grier could be characterized as lesbian, or merely as an emotionally intimate friendship between two unmarried women.[19] However, Whitton never publicly identified as lesbian during her political career, and Grier died before Whitton was elected as mayor, so Whitton could not be credited as Canada's first out LGBT mayor regardless of the nature of her relationship with Grier.

Grier died in 1947 and she is buried at Thompson Hill Cemetery, Thompson Hill, Horton, Ontario, Canada. In 1975 Whitton was buried alongside her.

courtesy-wikipedia
- Charlotte Whitton

Online Chat

© 2021 - All Rights Reserved