The cache is not at the posted coordinates; however, these coordinates do have historical significance. If you visit this site, you will be standing on the spot where Izena and her husband built their house when they moved to Edmonton in 1911.
2021 marks 100 years since the first woman was ever elected to Edmonton City Council
On December 12, 1921, Izena Ross made history by being elected Edmonton’s first female councillor. Unfortunately, the story of this housewife turned alderman has largely been lost to history. There is very little online or at the Edmonton archives about Izena beyond a few news clippings.
On September 7, 1874, Emma Izena Clark was born in Simcoe, Ontario. On May 4, 1904, at the age of 30, she married William James Ross, a farmer in the Simcoe area. This was older than the average age of marriage for a woman at the time, which was 22. Shortly after the wedding, Izena and William moved to Alberta with their extended families.
In 1916, the Equal Suffrage Statutory Law Amendment Act passed, giving women the right to vote and stand for elected office in Alberta. Izena was active in the community during this time as her daughter grew up, serving as the Secretary and then President of the Federated Union’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1917. She was also active in the Edmonton Local Council of Women, along with contemporaries like Nellie McClung and Emily Murphy.
She remained engaged in community organizations and civic groups through 1921, serving on the Edmonton Exhibition Board, volunteering for the Federal Liberal party, as secretary of the UFAW Political Association, even giving a speech at Gave a speech at an event held at Nellie McClung's house on behalf of the Edmonton Local Council of Women. Her community work gained her notice and support as she was selected by the Citizen’s League to participate on their slate of candidates for the 1921 municipal election.
In these early days, municipal elections were held every year in December as many of the council seats were filled on a rotating basis with 1 or 2-year terms given out. The 1921 municipal election was held December 12, 1921, to elect a mayor and seven aldermen to sit on Edmonton City Council and four trustees to sit on the public school board. There were ten aldermen seats on the city council, but three of the positions were still filled from the previous election: Joseph Adair, James Collisson, and Valentine Richards were all elected to two-year terms in 1920 and were still in office. William Campbell McArthur had also been elected to a two-year term but had resigned in order to run for mayor. Andrew McLennan had also been elected to a two-year term only to resign.
The slate that was put forward by the Citizen’s League had included Izena as an “alternate” with the understanding that she would be included only if Alderman Andrew McLennan resigned. That resignation happened on nomination day, December 5, 1921, so Izena was included as an Aldermanic Candidate for the Citizen’s League slate.
The election ran from December 5th to 12th, 1921. Izena had endorsements from many of the groups she was associated with and several advertisements came out to support her in the Edmonton Journal on December 8 and 9.
The entire Citizen’s League slate was elected including Mayor David Duggan and six of the seven available Alderman seats. Izena received 3,341 votes coming into 6th place. Two of the seven seats were for one-year terms, one of the two seats that were allocated to “south side” candidates and one for the candidate that came in 6th, which was Izena Ross, so her term would have ended in December 1922. While Izena did run for re-election and received 3,845 votes in the next election, it was not enough to secure a seat for the following year.
Izena served on the Edmonton Pubic School Board from 1935 until her death on October 26, 1945.
This cache has been placed with the intention of helping to keep Izena's legacy alive by sharing this lost history with others.