I grew up in small mining towns in B.C., Washington state
and northern Manitoba. I was born during the Great Depression
but did not know what that was until many years later. My
second decade brought World War II and all ages were caught
up in the war effort. Our parents bought Victory Bonds and
we kids bought war savings stamps which we carefully pasted
into little books.
I was the child of professionals, my father being a mining
engineer and my mother a nurse, but community life, and
the attitude of my parents, were great levelers. Company
houses were of similar size, rent was nominal, we all shopped
at the company store, and issues relating to money rarely
arose. That was until the Strike when families of the newly
formed Union and families of Management (my father was by
then the Superintendent) were pitted against one another
in struggles over wages and working conditions. Fortunately,
my father was a very humane manager and probably sympathized
more with the workers than with the distant mine owners
in New York. He gave me my first insight into what the
bargaining process could be: tough but fair discussions
between parties over how best to share the available resources.
My first brush with money came when I and a friend, as
pre-schoolers, found we could charge ice cream cones at
the company store and then bury the bill. The size of the
end of the month store bill shocked my parents but their
questioning got to the bottom of our escapade and they put
a stop to it. I must say they treated us in a very kindly
manner. I think they were more amused than angry at our
enterprise.
As a female I grew up thinking anything was possible but
all the models I saw were of married women or of
women wanting to get married. With puberty and growing attractions
to the opposite sex, even I thought becoming a partner with
my place in the home with hordes of children would not be
a such a bad fate.
The unreality of earning my own living extended beyond
my university graduation. I had become engaged to my fiancé
who was completing his first year in Oxford. I went to London
to find work. With my BAHons. I ended up waiting on table
for three months at the Cumberland Hotel where tips and
the cash from my War Savings Stamps enabled me to survive
because my pay was less than my rent. After Christmas
I lucked into inheriting a job tutoring the Canadian High
Commissioner's daughter. The pay though not princely was
enough to cover my rent and food.
After we married and my husband finished his degree we
returned to Canada just before producing a daughter with the promise of a teaching salary (for my
husband) of $3600 a year! We were both rather other-worldly
when it came to money, never craving a lot. I think the
fact that both of us grew up in professional households
where there was enough and many interests beyond making
a living freed us from undue ambition for wealth. We were
probably, in retrospect, rather unrealistic about what it
would cost to raise a family, but the fates were kind
to us. We had three more daughters and though we were
never flush with money over the following years we managed
swimming and music lessons, glasses and teeth straightening
without going into debt.
As my children grew up I did some tutoring and essay marking
and then was invited by a friend to join a women's international
affairs study group. For eight years we studied different
areas of the world and different global themes. We wrote
papers for one another on different facets of an issue or
region and would hold annual conferences with a women's
group from Minneapolis. I was launched on a passionate
journey to understand global events. This path led me
to activism with the YWCA and the feminism it expressed
at a World Conference in 1975 just after the first UN World
Conference on Women in Mexico City. With the Y's social
action committee, I worked in defense of underpaid and overworked
immigrant home workers and supported the anti-apartheid
movement in South Africa. You can imagine my disgust when
I found that the Y's Executive Director was refused credit
at a local bank because she had no man to sign for her.
During this period, I also read Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
which introduced me to the need to protect our environment.
Throughout the 1970s, the Report of the Royal Commission
on the Status of Women introduced me to the need for and
the means to bring about greater economic equity for women.
It was through the economic analysis in that report, provided
by Winnipeg economist June Menzies, that many of us learnt
to understand the plight of urban middle-class women, in
so many ways privileged, in so many other ways barred
from economic, legal and political equality.
The NDP became for me my preferred political arm to bring
about social justice not only for women, but also for all
people suffering from the inequality and instability of
the market-based economic system. Partisan political activity
dominated my life for the next two decades. I was a three
time candidate, provincial party President, policy committee
member, federal council member and finally elected member
of the legislature and Cabinet Minister from 1981 to 1988.
For seven years I had the privilege, and the daunting
task, of trying to put my political values and proposals
for social and economic justice into practice. Whether in
charge of economic development, community services and corrections,
or housing, status of women and labour, I tried to remember
and apply the principles of social justice through fairer
taxes, fairer working conditions and pay, needed services
of good quality, adequate affordable housing etc. - all
are components. There are so many competing claims on limited
resources and all one's colleagues to persuade; differences
of experience and priorities between males and females,
rural and urban. But to be there at the decision making
table, with the opportunity to make one's case the best
way one knows how, is exhilarating and well worth the shortage
of sleep, frustration and premature aging. More women need
to do it so the odds against women's voices being heard
can be reduced.
I did not start to earn a regular salary until I was
48. For three years as a high school counselor and seven years
as a Cabinet Minister, I could put substantial sums into
my own bank account. By then my husband had opened a joint
account for us. I was more than willing to put my fair share
into the household expenses, more than my fair share if
necessary, but I wanted to have my own bank account, the
freedom to spend as I chose, buy gifts for the grandchildren,
make my own mistakes.
Now I am a widow. I miss my husband of 50 years very dearly.
Of necessity, I am in complete control of my own finances.
The 'economy' has been good to me personally, largely because
I made a fortunate marriage, had good health and education
and a supportive family. I have been free enough to choose
to 'work' hard in a voluntary capacity for causes in which
I believe. As a family, we have been able to save and so
benefit from the miracles of compound interest. Still, I
believe most profoundly that I would be much happier if
the national and international systems which have supported
us could be reformed to benefit others more equitably.
Changing
the system from inside and out