Harry Ainlay -- Margaret Crang -- Rice Sheppard
-- three Edmontonians who fought for Edmonton farmers, workers and families through the first half of the 20th Century.
The three did not win all their battles but they made a difference that was felt across the city and across the province.
Rice Sheppard, one of the longest-serving aldermen in Edmonton's history, helped found the United Farmers of Alberta, which governed Alberta for 14 years.
Harry Ainlay, active in the CCF and the Alberta Teachers Association, served as mayor for four years.
Margaret Crang is still the youngest ever elected to city council. She played a leading role in the League against War and Fascism and attempted to form a United Front of Edmonton's Left. She pursued legal redress for immigrants and political and religious dissidents under wartime "security" prohibitions. Seeing Spain engulfed in a brutal civil war, an act of defiance on behalf of the elected government earned her outrage across Canada -- but respect among anti-fascists.
The three - although generations apart in age - served together on Edmonton city council during the Great Depression, at a time when the Labour Party dominated Edmonton's city hall. They fought side by side for the satisfaction of people's basic needs required by human decency and natural justice.
Protest and Progress Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton by Tom Monto chronicles their lives, struggles and successes.
458 pages, photographs, illustrations. Paperback $25
Available at Alhambra Books 10115 81 Avenue 780-439-4195.
Thanks for reading.
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