Fairclough, The Right Honourable Ellen Louks, CC, UE, LLD, FCA, FRCGS, DH, P.C.: 28 January 1905, Hamilton, Ontario--13 November 2004, Dundas, Ontario former Dominion Secretary (1939) and Honorary Vice-President of UELAC.

Members of the UELAC were deeply saddened by the death of one of their Honorary Vice Presidents, The Right Honourable Ellen Louks Fairclough, on Saturday, 13 November 2004, in Dundas, Ontario, at the age of ninety-nine.

Dearly beloved wife of the late David Henry Gordon Fairclough (1997) and predeceased by her son, Howard Gordon Fairclough (1986), she is survived by several nieces and nephews.

Born Ellen Louks Cook, in Hamilton, Ontario, on Saturday, 28 January 1905, she was the third of five children in a fifth-generation Canadian family. On her mother Nellie's side, she was descended from Huguenots and United Empire Loyalists who moved to Norfolk County from Vermont in 1790. Her paternal ancestors emigrated to Ancaster, Upper Canada, in 1802, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

"I am fifth-generation Canadian through both parents, a fact in which 1 take considerable pride. On my mother's side, I am descended from Henry Crouse LOUKS and his wife, Sarah Sluyter. They were Huguenots and United Empire Loyalists who moved with their three-year-old son, William, to Norfolk County from Vermont in 1790. The name was originally De Laux or Du Laux but was spelled in a variety of ways, including 'Luck', 'Luke', and 'Laux' without the 'de,' obviously the result of phonetic spelling where the written record did not exist. William Louks married Hulda Huffman, and their son Alexander was my grandfather. Alexander married Ellen Steinhoff (for whom I am named), and their daughter, their sixth child, Nellie Bell, was my mother. She married my father, Norman Ellsworth Cook on 25 June 1889. On my paternal side, I am descended from Andrew and Anna Cook, who emigrated to Ancaster, Upper Canada, in 1802 from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Andrew applied for a grant of land and was given 200 acres in Toronto Township in 1808, but he did not move his family there until 1816. His son Jacob, at the age of nineteen, had settled there a year earlier, after voluntary service in the War of 1812. The family helped to found the town of Cooksville. Although I had been vaguely aware of having many relatives, it was not until John and Eileen (Shepherd) Houser published a genealogical sketch of the descendants of Andrew and Anna Christina (Palmer) Cook in 1970 that I discovered the names of over 2,000 of them in my father's family. Captain Fred Cook, my first cousin (once removed), and now a resident of Tillsonburg, with the help of many other Cooks, is continuing this research." (1)

Ellen's father, Norman Ellsworth Cook, had farmed in Norfolk County, but the light soil did not produce sufficient crops and, in 1904, he moved his family to a house on the western edge of Hamilton. In her memoirs, Mrs. Fairclough states, "Although we never went hungry, we were not an affluent family. Money was often hard to come by, especially when 'hard times' descended on Hamilton, which they seemed to do periodically." When Ellen was nine, the family could not even afford each child's school fees of 10 cents per month. She started working part-time in a department store at the age of 12. At 16, Ellen was working full-time to help support her family. By the time the industrious young woman married her husband Gordon Fairclough in 1931, she had managed to establish herself as a businesswoman. Following the birth of her son Howard, Ellen Fairclough took correspondence courses to become a chartered accountant who owned her own accounting firm. Her accounting practice grew and she became the Secretary for the Canadian Wholesale Grocers' Association. Those duties included visits to Ottawa to meet departmental officials and members of Parliament.

Entering politics, she was elected as an Alderman in Hamilton in 1946 and served as Controller and Deputy Mayor in 1949 before becoming a member of the Conservative Party in 1950 when she was elected to the House of Commons. In 1950, she was the only female MP until she was joined by three more in the 1953 election. Mrs. Fairclough served as the Member of Parliament for Hamilton West from 1950 to 1963 and as Privy Councillor from 1957 to 1963. She was elected to the House of Commons five times, a record unmatched by any other woman during the 1950s and 1960s.

When her only child, Howard, was stricken with polio in 1947, she convinced the Hamilton City Council to open a disused military hospital to better accommodate the city's polio victims. Following his illness, she became active in the March of Dimes, joining the Provincial Board and becoming a "Marching Mother," a fundraising effort which saw tens of thousands of North American women go door-to-door in their neighbourhoods in the 1950s and 1960s. The result was millions raised for polio research, which contributed to the Salk vaccine, creating the historic made-in-Canada cure for polio, along with rehabilitation equipment and programs. Ellen Fairclough was appointed Chief Marching Mother of Ontario in 1965, the honorary head of the province's 40,000 Marching Mothers.

Mrs. Fairclough served in the federal government until 1963, being Canada's first female Cabinet Minister, appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State on 21 June 1957 to 11 May 1958; Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, 12 May 1958 to 8 August 1962; and Postmaster General, 9 August 1962 to 22 April 1963.

As Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, she was instrumental in revising the Immigration Act to eliminate racial discrimination from Canada's immigration policy. She also served as Superintendent General of Indian Affairs when, in 1960, she introduced the historic legislation giving Status Indians the right to vote in federal elections. Over the years, she also had responsibility for several federal agencies--the Dominion Carillonneur, the National Gallery, the National Film Board, the Royal Canadian Mint, the National Archives and the National Library.

During her parliamentary career, she represented the country on several occasions at official events abroad, acting as an advisor to the Canadian delegation to the United Nations, October, 1950, and representing Canada at the 1955 Conference of Parliamentarians from NATO countries in Paris. As well, Mrs. Fairclough was a delegate to the inauguration of the Federation of British West Indies Parliamentarians in April, 1958, and an Ambassador Extraordinary to the inauguration of President Frondizi of Argentina in May, 1958.

She was chosen "Woman of the Year" by journalists in 1957 and again in 1958. In 1975, she was named "Outstanding Woman" for the Province of Ontario. An Ontario government building was named for her in 1982. She was honoured by the Churchill Society with an award for the advancement of parliamentary democracy in 1993.

On Monday, 20 February 1978, the House of Commons unanimously passed the following resolution: "That the House extend its sincere congratulations to the Hon. Ellen Fairclough for the significant contribution she made to Canadian political life, for being, 20 years ago today, the only woman in Canadian political history to serve as Acting Prime Minister, and requests that the Speaker write a letter of congratulations to the Hon. Ellen Fairclough on this very significant anniversary."

Mrs. Fairclough received many other honours and awards, being sworn to the Privy Council, 21 June 1957; receiving the Coronation Medal in 1953, the Centennial Medal in 1967, the Jubilee Medal in 1977, the Office of the Order of Canada in 1978 and the 125th Anniversary of Confederation Medal in 1992.

She was granted the rare honour of being sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the title Right Honourable on 1 July 1992, one of very few people who had been neither Prime Minister of Canada, Governor General, nor Chief Justice of Canada to have the title.

In 1995 she published her memoirs, Saturday's Child: Memoirs of Canada's First Female Cabinet Minister, and that same year was awarded the Companion of the Order of Canada and received the Order of Ontario at Queen's Park on 26 September 1996.

After leaving political office, Mrs. Fairclough began a new career in business, as Hydro commissioner, and served on the boards of many foundations and charities, including the Girl Guides and Consumers' Association of Canada.

Mrs. Fairclough also served as the Dominion Secretary of the UELAC, Provincial Secretary and Vice-President of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) and a regional chair of the Zonta International women's group, which included members from American states and Canadian provinces.

"In the Hamilton Branch of the United Empire Loyalist Association [sic], a group of young people met frequently in the homes of other members. One of the members, Robert S. Johnston, subsequently served as Dominion President, and in 1939, I became Secretary of the Dominion Association. More recently, the local branch has named me its Honorary Patron. In 1969 the Huguenot Society of Canada, which was founded in 1966, named me its Patron." (2)

On 14 November 2004, Prime Minister Paul Martin made the following statement: "It is with both sadness and a sense of history that I learned of the death of the Right Honourable Ellen Fairclough. ... Ms. Fairclough was a forceful and compelling voice demanding equal pay for women. Clearly she was a woman who had a lasting and positive impact on public life and made our nation a better place. On behalf of the government and all Canadians, I extend sympathies to her family."

Stephen Harper stated in the House of Commons, "... In her professional, volunteer and political life, Ellen Fairclough was a pioneer, trailblazer and a role model. After an initial business career in her hometown of Hamilton as an accountant, she was elected to this place in 1950 as a Conservative MP and at the time the only female Member of Parliament. She served with distinction for 13 years. Under Prime Minister Diefenbaker, Ellen Fairclough was the first woman to be appointed to the federal cabinet and the first woman to be designated acting prime minister. As minister of citizenship and immigration, she was instrumental in revising the Immigration Act to completely eliminate racial discrimination from Canada's immigration policy. In her later years she was a passionate advocate for the involvement of women in political life. Ellen Fairclough devoted her life to public service and the advancement of Canadian values. She will be remembered as an activist and humanitarian for her enduring commitment to this country."

McMaster University has honoured her with the establishment of The Ellen Louks Fairclough Memorial Scholarship in Political Science that will help a graduate student in political science at McMaster.

Friends are invited to sign Mrs. Fairclough's Book of Condolences at www.dbrobinson.com.

Endnotes:

(1.) Ellen Louks Fairclough, Saturday's Child: Memoirs of Canada's First Female Cabinet Minister, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995, p. 14.

(2.) Fairclough, 1995, ibid, p. 32.