British Columbia History

Kaslo’s Not-so-Famous Six

The result of the Kaslo, BC municipal election was a foregone conclusion. Even before the polls closed on election day, Thursday, January 17, 1918, it was obvious that Kaslo (and possibly the province of British Columbia) would have its first female city councillors.

Ten candidates were nominated for six aldermanic positions on Kaslo’s city council. Simple mathematics indicated that with only four male candidates in the running, women would ultimately occupy at least two council positions.

This prospect was recognized, on the day of the election, rather light-heartedly by Kaslo’s newspaper editor, H.W. Power in the Kootenaian under the front page headline: “Going to Have Two Ladies in City Council Anyhow.” On election day Power wrote: “Despite all gloomy predictions in the contrary, it appears as if we are going to have a bit of fun this election after all. This is due to the ladies who—bless ‘em—have rustled up a ticket of six duly qualified of the fair set to run for the aldermanic seats.”

Yet serious questions lingered. Why were there so few male candidates? Over the past three years the men of Kaslo had already contributed in very significant numbers to the Great War effort. Were the gentlemen, therefore, unavailable to contribute administratively or politically on the home front as well? Under the headline, “Election Next Week; Who’s Going to Run?” an article in the Kootenaian the week before the election indicates that male candidates existed and had been asked to run but that they were not interested in the job.

The local West Kootenay press and Kaslo City Council records do not reveal any unique or

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