Profiles of Alberta Women
Hazel Braithwaite
Hazel Braithwaite, president of the Farm Women’s Union of Alberta, seen second from the left. "Farm Women's Union of Alberta receives award from National Safety Council, Edmonton, Alberta." [ca. 1961-01-25], (CU1201851) by Ernst of Goertz. Courtesy of Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary. Public domain.
Personal life
On May 3rd, 1905 Hazel Eva Jones was born in Assiginack, a township on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. At five years old she moved with her family to Red Deer, Alberta after her father William was transferred by his employer, Great West Lumber Company. In Red Deer she attended Red Deer Central School, and participated in the Red Deer Swine Club, a precursor to 4-H clubs in Alberta.1
On April 21, 1921 at the age of sixteen she married Clifford Braithwaite, with whom she had six children: Dorothy, George, Jim, Tom, Johnny, and Eva. After the marriage Hazel and Clifford moved to a farm in the Shady Nook District, where she was involved in managing the household, educating the children, and daily farming activities. After leaving farming in 1955 and moving to Sylvan Lake, Hazel purchased and operated the Uptown Café and Theatre there for several years.2 Her experiences acting as both a farmer and parent informed a lifetime of volunteering, working, and activism on behalf of farmers in general and farm women in particular.
Activism
The earliest accounts of Hazel’s activism concern the 1926 federal election, soon after women in Canada won the right to vote. An advocate for suffrage, Hazel showed up at twenty-one years old to exercise her newly-won voting rights, only to find the way blocked by a crowd of men. Family legend has it that Hazel pushed her way through and cast her vote, kicking off a life of determined activism.3
Hazel volunteered with a range of organizations throughout her life to promote and pursue the interests of rural Albertans. A believer in women as equal partners on the farm, Hazel joined the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA) ten years after its formation in 1915 and stayed with the organization for over forty years. Over those years she at various times filled every one of the organization’s executive positions, including president, a position which she won in 1958 and held for five years.4
While with the UFWA, which became the Farm Women’s Union of Alberta (FWUA) in 1949, and subsequently Women of Unifarm in 1970, Hazel helped further causes including standards of living and security for farmers, education for farm women, health and social welfare, citizenship and leadership, and international peace. Her work took her across Canada, and she represented the organization at conventions and events in places including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ottawa. As president she also voiced her opposition when the government pursued policies to which she was opposed. In 1963, in response to concerns that the Government of Alberta was considering investing in private nursing homes, she wrote:
“I believe everyone has the right to fair returns for their labor and investment. But I also believe the government has the responsibility to see these returns are fair and no one is exploited because private enterprise demands it.
Those of us who have had considerable experience in having our aged parents in private nursing homes in Alberta have been disgusted that such homes were ever allowed to exist . . .
. . . We need to remember that every person who receives old-age pensions has paid taxes to governments in one form or another from the first day they began working on their own. These taxes were from income, land tax, sales taxes, tariffs, gasoline tax, etc. Perhaps one-third of all money earned during a lifetime has gone to the government in taxes. We recognize this contribution to our society and now we feel we should provide care for them in their declining years, at a cost they can afford.5
One of the main accomplishments of the FWUA during Hazel’s time was the building of Goldeye Lake Camp, an educational, recreational, and leadership camp for junior farmers in Alberta. Hazel herself participated in the first camp session in 1961, tenting out and cooking meals in the kitchen camp shelter with Laura Gibeau, another FWUA member. Their experience was apparently made more lively when the two women were visited one night by a local bear!6 The next year, under Hazel’s presidency the FWUA sponsored a Citizenship Camp at Goldeye. The camp invited young people from both farming communities and reserves to come and learn about democracy, citizenship, and leadership by comparing the organization of rural communities to reserve band councils.7
In addition to the FWUA, Hazel held positions at a variety of charity, community, and educational organizations. She was the first director of civil defence for Red Deer West, as well as a member of both the University of Alberta Board of Governors and the University of Alberta Senate, to which she was elected in 1976.8 She also sat on the boards of other farmers’ organizations, including the National Farmers’ Union and the Alberta Federation of Agriculture, and represented prairie farm women in the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.9
In the 1950s Hazel represented the FWUA at conferences in Scotland (1959) and Australia (1962) organized by the Associated Country Women of the World. Hazel also contributed to the preservation of Alberta’s history through her involvement with the Burnt Lake Historical Society, which in 1977 published Along the Burnt Lake Trail: A History of Shady Nook, Burnt Lake, Centerville, Pine Hill Marianne, Kuusamo and Evarts. Hazel served the society variously as a member, treasurer, and director. Other organizations to which she contributed include the Red Deer and District Council on Aging, the John Howard Society, the Children and Family Welfare Association, the Alberta Education Council, The Indian-Eskimo Association, Eastern Star, the Friendship Centre in Sylvan Lake, Meals on Wheels, and the Red Cross, with which she volunteered during the Second World War.
In 1965 Hazel stepped into politics, running as the federal candidate for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the district of Red Deer, taking a total of 5% of the vote (1340 total votes). An ad for her campaign in the Red Deer Advocate read “Let’s give the Old Parties a well-deserved rest. This country needs it.”10 In 1971, she turned her eye to municipal politics, running as one of fourteen candidates for town council in Sylvan Lake, but did not win one of the six seats. She again ran for council in 1974, but was again unsuccessful.
“[Letter to the editor responding to another letter] Douglas H. Helm, in a letter, had an abundance of advice and suggestions about what women should be doing.
But Mr. Helm did not point out that men are in power the world over.
Men make the laws. Men force themselves on women in rape cases, and their punishment is very minute. Should women in these cases be forced to produce a child they are not ready for? . . .
Mr. Helm says, ‘Finally, if you women don’t want children then hand them over to a government sponsored adoption agency. This way your offspring can boost our Canadian population, as well as being a blessing to many married couples who desperately want to adopt and cherish a baby.’ Again he has forgotten a man was responsible, and does not have any suggestions.
Perhaps we should establish a de-sexing program for men who do not face up to the fact of life.
Hazel Braithwaite, “Advice for Women Off Mark,” Red Deer Advocate (Red Deer, AB), Feb. 18, 1985.
Hazel was inducted into the Alberta Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1978, joining a still growing list of individuals who have brought leadership to farm, rural, commodity, and food organizations and industry in Alberta. Before her death on August 31, 1994 at age 89, Hazel made one final contribution to the women of Alberta through her assistance in the foundation of the Irene Parlby Scholarship, established in honour of Irene Parlby, former UFWA president, second Canadian woman to become a provincial cabinet minister, and member of Canada’s Famous Five responsible for the Persons Case.
Hazel Braithwaite’s life was one of getting things done. Whether it was raising six children and managing a farm, asserting her right to vote, or pushing for change with one of the countless organizations to which she lent her time, she was a person who achieved positive outcomes through persistence. Hazel’s dual roles as both activist and caretaker has been commemorated in Red Deer through the Public Art Ghost Collection, a collection of life-sized bronze statues that tells the history of community and community members in the area. Hazel’s statue embodies her dynamism by showing her public figure clad in formal attire while holding a smaller likeness wearing a house dress like one might wear around the farm.11
Read more about Hazel Braithwaite
Footnotes
1 “Braithwaite, Hazel,” Unlock the Past, Central Alberta Regional Museum Network, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20200814103540/https://www.unlockthepast.ca/24/people/40.
2 “Eva Ellen Morris (Johnson/nee Braithwaite,” Sylvan Lake News (Sylvan Lake, AB), Dec. 2, 2020.
3 Brenda Kossowan, “Suffragette Pioneer Dies at the Age of 89,” Red Deer Advocate (Red Deer, AB), Sept. 1, 1994.
4 “Braithwaite, Hazel,” Unlock the Past.
5 (Mrs. C. R.) Hazel Braithwaite, “Advocate Readers Have Their Say,” Red Deer Advocate (Red Deer, AB), Aug. 19, 1963.
6 Carrol L. Jacques, Unifarm: A Story of Conflict & Change (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2001), 104.
7 Ibid., 107.
8 “Braithwaite, Hazel,” Unlock the Past.
9 Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame: Inductees Yearbook (Edmonton: Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Government of Alberta, 2021), 77.
10 “Vote Hazel Braithwaite New Democratic Party,” Red Deer Advocate (Red Deer, AB), Oct. 22, 1965.
11 A photograph of Hazel’s statue and details of the Public Art Ghost Collection can be seen here: https://www.reddeer.ca/recreation-and-culture/arts-and-culture/public-art/public-art-ghost-collection/cul---public-art-hazel-braithwaite.html
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