FeaturesThis Day in Yukon History

The adventurous Mrs. Martha Louise Black

June 29, 1938 

   “Among all the women legislators in the world, the laurels for the most strenuous election campaigning probably should go to adventurous seventy-one-year-old Mrs. Martha Louise Black, who represents Canada’s northernmost constituency, the 200,000-square-mile Yukon territory, in the house of commons.

   Scattered throughout this vast hinterland there are only 1,805 voters, yet Mrs. Black personally knows 1,500. In her last campaign she traveled thousands of miles by canoes, small motorboat, a river steamer and two-horse teams and visited nearly all of them. When other means of transportation were impracticable she walked, making a three-mile trek through the forest to visit three trappers. When the ballots were counted she had a majority of 135.

   Mrs. Black is no novice at parliamentary duties. Her husband was elected the member for the Yukon in 1921, and in 1930 became speaker of the house of commons. Ill health forced him to give up parliamentary duties in 1935 and Mrs. Black stepped into the breach. After a stern fight she won, although the Conservative party lost the election.”

(The Perry County Democrat – New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania)

Murray Lundberg

Travelling, writing, and photographing for articles and blog posts at ExploreNorth.

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