Women MLAs in Alberta history - often Alberta had more women in the Legislature than other provinces
- Tom Monto
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
After achieving the vote and the right to run as candidates in 1916, Alberta women have been represented in the Alberta Legislature more often than not, although never quite getting their proportional share of seats (which would likely be a slight majority).
Currently 33 are in the Legislature.
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1917
Louise McKinney Claresholm
Roberta McAdams non-partisan WWI soldiers' and nurses' rep.
1921
Parlby UFA
Nellie McClung Liberal
STV adopted in Edmonton and Calgary, IRV adopted elsewhere
No woman was elected in Edmonton in the 7 elections when STV was used. No woman even ran in 1926 and 1930. One or more women ran in every other election but none were elected. (Ethel Wilson would be elected in a Strathcona, Edmonton district in 1959 after the switch to FPTP)
1926 Parlby UFA re-elected
1930 Parlby UFA re-elected
(By 1930 women have been elected to legislatures in every western Canadian province and to the House of Commons.
1935 Edith Gostick SC Calgary under STV
Edith Rogers SC elected in Ponoka
1940 Rose Wilkinson SC Calgary under STV
1944 Rose Wilkinson SC Calgary re-elected under STV
1948 Rose Wilkinson SC Calgary re-elected under STV
1952 Rose Wilkinson SC Calgary re-elected under STV
1953 Elizabeth Robinson SC Medicine Hat
elected in by-election held after husband's death
1955 Rose Wilkinson SC Calgary re-elected under STV
1955 Elizabeth Robinson re-elected in Medicine Hat
after return to FPTP (last used in Edmonton and Calgary in 1917)
1959 Ethel Wilson SC would be elected in a Strathcona, Edmonton district in 1959 after the switch to FPTP)
1959 Rose Wilkinson SC Calgary-North re-elected under FPTP
(1961 Quebec finally elected its first woman MNP (MLA), the last province to do so.)
1986 ten women MLAs
NDP
Pam Barrett
Marie Laing NDP
Christie Mjolsness NDP
Conservatives
Janet Koper Calgary
Dianne Mirosh
Elaine McCoy (first woman to hold the post of Minister of Status of Women)
Shirley Cripps Drayton Valley
Nancy MacBeth (Betkowski)
Connie Osterman Three Hills
Liberals
Bettie Hewes (former Edmonton city councillor 1974-1984)
1989
Conservatives
Elaine McCoy P-C re-elected in Calgary (later a Senator)
Nancy MacBeth (Betkowski)
(Progressive Conservative MLA from 1986 to 1993.
Liberal leader from 1998 to 2001. She was the first female opposition leader in the province's history.)
Pearl Calahasen (Metis -- first Indigenous woman in AB Leg.)
1993 16 women MLAs
1997 22 women MLAs elected (judging by number sitting in 1998)
Conservative
Muriel Abdurahman Conservative Fort Saskatchewan
(former mayor Ft. Sask)
(in 1998 22 woman MLAs in Alberta.
This was the most in any legislature except for Quebec with 27.)
2001
2005
2008 Rachel Notley NDP Edmonton -Strathcona
2012 22 women elected
Rachel Notley NDP re-elected MLA in Edmonton -Strathcona
2015 28 women elected to Legislature -- 25 NDP-ers, more than half of the NDP caucus
as Rachel Notley Edmonton -Strathcona MLA NDP became premier of Alberta.
NDP
Rachel Notley re-elected
Sarah Hoffman (ran to succeed Notley as leader in 2024)
Kathleen Ganley (ran to succeed Notley as leader in 2024)
Shannon Phillips
Lori Sigurdson
Anim Kazim Calgary-Glenmore (won on recount)
Two NDP women MLAs became pregnant during this term:
-Stephanie McLean, minister of both Service Alberta and Status of Women who took her baby into the Legislature with her. on maternity leave in fall 2018. resigned her seat in Jan 2019. did not seek re-election.) (BC Liberal MP 2025-)
-Brandy Payne (did not seek re-election)
Denise Woollard
Conservatives 3 woman MLAs
2019 many NDP women re-elected
Rachel Notley re-elected MLA in Edmonton -Strathcona
Sarah Hoffman
Shannon Phillips re-elected
Lori Sigurdson
2023 record number of woman MLAs elected -- 33 including Premier Danielle Smith UCP
Peggy Wright NDP Edm-Beverly...
Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse
She is the first First Nations woman to be elected to the Alberta Legislature, and the second Indigenous woman, following Pearl Calahasen (Métis) elected in 1989
(ran to succeed Notley as leader in 2024)
Shannon Phillips re-elected (she resigned in July 2024. Investigation revealed that in 2017 two members of the local police force had conducted surveillance on her as she moved to ban off-road vehicles from the Castle Provincial Park while she was minister of parks.)
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Elaine McCoy, Alberta cabinet member 1986-1992, said:
"Women politicians do make a difference... and that’s why I believe our agenda for the 1990’s—the agenda of women and women’s organizations—must be to encourage and help more women get into politics...If more of us take seats in the legislature, at the cabinet table and in the top ranks of the public service, then gradually issues of concern to half the human race will no longer be ghettoized as ‘women’s issues’."
from Sharpe, Sydney. The Gilded Ghetto: Women and Political Power in Canada, (Toronto : Harper Collins Publishers), p. 216-7
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