It’s probably a good thing if this comes as a surprise: during last month’s Ontario municipal elections, two small rural communities — the Township of Algonquin Highlands and the town of Spanish — elected new councils comprised entirely of women.Yawn. Because it’s 2018, right? This shouldn’t even rank as newsworthy. And as news goes, October’s gender breakthroughs registered as barely a blip: notable marginalia, at best, in an election saga dominated by the provincial government’s dramatic downsizing of Toronto council.Hold on, though — was this historic? After electing thousands of all-male councils, was this the first time Ontario’s 444 municipalities produced even a single all-female council, let alone two? The CBC thought so, initially, in a piece proclaiming that “voters in Ontario made history twice by electing two all-female councils.” But it’s not actually true.Algonquin Highlands Mayor Carol Moffatt, who won re-election only to find herself surrounded by winning council candidates of the same gender, hailed the moment in an interview with CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning.“It’s a pretty noteworthy achievement in the face of political life in Ontario and we’re definitely proud to be a part of it,” said Moffatt. “The fact that we are all women is important, and on the other hand, it shouldn’t have to matter … but the fact that it shouldn’t have to matter is exactly why it does matter.”Moffatt, whose interest in Ontario history predates her mayoralty, didn’t leave it at that. She did some digging and a few days later discovered and shared on Facebook the real facts: Ontario voters had done this once before. It happened in the village of Tweed, in 1967, where a woman by the name of Barbara Allen was elected reeve, leading Canada’s first all-female council.And in 1967, unlike 2018, it was front-page news, drawing int ...
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