The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
If your the first to do something, you're always given a hero's status, whether it is in sports, business, or even politics. Note the amazing election of Barack Obama as the first black President of the world's most powerful nation, only a generation away from the legal mistreatment of black Americans in much of the USA. Although many black Americans still live in ghettos and poverty, and dominate the prison population, many commentators are convinced the bad days are over and American voters have made a great choice, even though 48 per cent of them did not choose the Illinois senator. Some in Canada are gushing that we could have a black or aboriginal Prime Minister in the future. This is of course true, but realistically Obama got the high office because of the failures of his opponents, particularly George W. Bush, but also Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Obama is also facing the massive economic recession and continued problems in foreign affairs. Canada may not be very happy if Obama follows through on his NAFTA renegotiation idea or if there is a squabble over Arctic sovereignty. But remember, Canada has all that oil, which the USA continues to need as it would like to get rid of its reliance on oil from Venezuela and the far east. In a speech at the November Conservative convention, Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke of the "firsts" for the Conservative Party since they founded the Canadian Federation in 1867, bounding Canada together by building a coast-to-coast railway, and giving women and aboriginals the right to vote. Also mentioned were the many political firsts Ð the first Chinese, Japanese, Muslim and Hindu MPs, the first aboriginal Senator, and the first female cabinet minister. Although Harper did not mention it, there were a number of other firsts. John Diefenbaker was the first Prime Minister not of Anglo or Francophone ancestry, and he prided himself on being colour blind and ethnic blind, and insisted that his followers be the same. Dief gave native Canadians the right to vote on reserves, and was greatly revered by them while he was leader. John was awarded honourary Chief by at least 25 tribes in Canada and had a lock on their votes. And as mentioned before, John greatly encouraged the first black MP, Lincoln Alexander, who certainly proved in his career to be well worth the encouragement, and led the way for other ethnic Canadians who followed. Dief appointed the first Ukrainian-Canadian Senator, Saskatchewan's Senator Hnatyshyn, whose son Raymond became a Mulroney cabinet minister and later was the first Ukrainian-Canadian Governor-General of Canada. The first female cabinet minister? Why none other than Ellen Fairclough, the former Hamilton city councillor who was the only woman in Parliament when she was elected in a 1950 by-election. She had an amazing career, but had a real battle to be recognized and appreciated in Parliament. When Diefenbaker was elected in 1957, he reluctantly appointed Fairclough to the cabinet, and then as several writers noticed, he ignored her. From 1957-63, she was in several cabinet positions: Secretary of State, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Indian Affairs, and Postmaster-General, but generally was ignored by her fellow cabinet ministers and often excluded from cabinet discussions because of her gender. In her memoir, published in 1995, Fairclough wrote: "I had a fairly tough hide when I entered politics, but it grew to be two feet thick by the time I retired from public life." Ellen retired from public life after her defeat in 1963, became chairwoman of Ontario Hydro and later worked for an International Women's Group well into her 80s. Ellen died two months short of her hundredth birthday in 2004, the last surviving member of Diefenbaker's government. One Diefenbaker confidant and author said: "In hometown discussion, I heard Dief speak admiringly of only four women Ð his mother, his second wife, the Queen, and Charlotte Whitton, the Mayor of Ottawa. Ellen Fairclough never got a mention." How things have changed! There have been lots of women cabinet members, a woman Prime Minister and Governor-General Ð a change certainly for the better! Roger's Right Corner runs Wednesdays.
