Lives of Margaret Crang, Harry Ainlay and Rice Sheppard described in Protest and Progress

Protest and Progress

Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton

by Tom Monto

Best remembered now for having a high school named after him, Harry Ainlay was a political activist of very strong convictions. A teacher at the Garneau and Old Strathcona public schools, he was an active unionist and Labour Party man, serving on Edmonton's city council in the Dirty Thirties.

Rice Sheppard, who farmed the land that is now Avonmore, helped found the United Farmers of Alberta political movement and saw it become government of Alberta in 1921. He served on Edmonton city council as a Labour man and helped found the Co-operative Commonwealth party during the Depression.

Margaret Crang, a newly-trained lawyer, was barely more than a teenager when she was elected to city council to serve alongside Ainlay and Sheppard, when Labour dominated City Hall. They fought hard for proper treatment of the poor, the young and old, the sick and frail. They succeeded in keeping streetcar fares low and fought for better treatment of the unemployed.

But while on city council they drifted apart, Rice Sheppard to the radical reformist Social Credit movement led by William Aberhart, and Margaret Crang to a United Front coalition with Communists. Their political activities continued into the 1940s, but they were overshadowed by the successes of Harry Ainlay who became mayor as Edmonton finally emerged from the dark days of the world war.

Protest and Progress chronicles their lives on the streets of Strathcona, amidst the historic buildings that still stand today.

Protest and Progress (450 pages, photos, illustrations, end-notes, appendices, index) is available for $25 from Alhambra Books, 10115-81 Avenue, or through abebooks.com