A white-haired grandmother, with a merry twinkle in her eye and a sharper mind that most of the girls, is in Winnipeg on the way to take her seat in the house of commons as Canada's second woman member, says The Winnipeg Free Press, and continues. She is Mrs. George Black, elected Independent Conservative member for Yukon.
Travelling the longest distance of any member to the federal house, Mrs.
Black broke her journey here. She will remain as the guest of her son and daughter-in-law, Capt. and Mrs, Lyman Black, Fort Osborne barracks, for a fortnight.
At 9:30 in the morning Mrs. Black was ready for an interview. By 11:00
clock the representatives of the press were still her guests and fairly helpless with laughter at the tales of this young old lady of 70 vears, a bride on the Trail of '98, a woman of vast experience in the joys and sorrows of pioneering, the wife of the Yukon
member and speaker of the federal house for many years.
Mrs. Black has discovered that many persons are enquiring what she is going to do for women at Ottawa and many have definite ideas what she should do. Advice has been freely given.
No Promises
"I'll do the best I can and I'll make no promises," asserted the new
member. During all the 32 years she has known politicians she has not known them to keep promises, usually because the promises were impossible.
Her constituency is 200,000 square miles with a population of 1,805 voters.
"You knew men are not asked what they are going to do for men when elected to parliament. Why should women be?" speculated this extremely feminine woman, described by herself as "no rank reformer and no rank feminist."
"I am particularly concerned with my constituency. I want money for roads which are needed in the Yukon. I would like to see the new eight-hour day bill applicable to the Yukon. I am anxious to promote the Borstal system in our prisons," she said.
"You are not likely to reform men past forty years, but you can begin at the beginning and bring up a child or reform a youth," she thought. "It is wise to dig the cellar before building a house," she remarked.
It is too bad to condemn youth so much, Mrs. Black thinks. And as a grandmother she has a right to think about it.
"I can't see that the men and women or the boys and girls are any
better or worse. They are as good or bad only in different ways - than a generation ago," she said. "You didn't do that when I was a girl" is repeated each generation.
