The Icelandic Canadian - 01.08.2009, Side 40

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THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 62 #3
about women’s role in the Social Credit
movement were still coloured by his own
conservative fundamentalist Christian
notions of femininity. Aberhart’s dedica-
tion to creating financial security for
women so that they would not seek work
outside of the home as well as his frequent
usage of biblical references to “woman as
helpmate” contributed to the parameters of
female political participation during this
period, limiting their positions to those
which did not subvert his belief in woman’s
natural role as attendant to rather than
leader of man.
Throughout her term, however,
Halldorson appears to have continually
tested the boundaries of the party’s vision
of female political participation, presenting
new questions for historians of the Social
Credit movement. Unlike many of her
female Albertan counterparts, her writing
lacks the profoundly religious tone that
characterised the work of other female
Social Crediters such as MLAs Cornelia
Wood and Rose Wilkenson who frequent-
ly imbued Douglasite economic conspiracy
theories with “Satanic powers”. Wood’s
vision of female political and economic
participation, moreover, hinged on the
concept of motherhood as “the most natur-
al and magnificent career for any normal
woman”, and she argued that women
should be eligible for public office only
when they had “raised their families to the
age of independence.” Halldorson’s writ-
ing, in contrast, employed domestic
imagery but omitted traditional references
to maternity. This omission also distin-
guishes Halldorson's politics from those of
maternal feminists in the province who,
like Wood, viewed motherhood as the basis
for female political rights. Herself a single
woman, Halldorson’s writing illustrates
the relative flexibility of the gender
imagery she employed, particularly its
effectiveness in the negotiation a position
of respect and prestige within the assembly
during her first few years in office. Instead
of invoking credentials based on mother-
hood, Halldorson employed the image of
the intelligent and strict but concerned
“lady school teacher turned politician” to
broadcast her political beliefs and navigate
power dynamics within the legislature.
Using this persona, she even publicly
scolded her former pupil, Conservative
leader Errick Willis, in front of the entire
assembly in 1937.
It was made known to a large num-
ber of people last night that I was his
teacher in the 11th Grade. I had hoped
it would remain a secret, but now it is
out, I wish to say that I will take no
responsibility for his words or
actions. If he would submit now to a
year of my teaching, I might be able to
secure more satisfactory results.
Perhaps the most remarkable example
of Halldorson’s attempt to secure a posi-
tion of authority within the Legislative
Assembly and the Social Credit party was
in her public clashes with the Aberhart
administration, including the controversial
1936 Social Credit- Liberal-Progressive
Alliance announced following the party’s
secretive leadership election. Although
Halldorson was one of the most widely-
recognised new MLAs in the 1936 assem-
bly and frequently appeared as a
spokesperson for the five Manitoban Social
Credit MLAs, she failed to achieve the
position of party head, accepting the presi-
dency of the Manitoba Social Credit
League instead. When the newly elected
Social Credit officials gathered at a closed
meeting in Dauphin, Manitoba with Social
Credit MP, E. J. Poole, Dr. Stanley Fox of
Gilbert Plains won the position of party
leader. Shortly thereafter Fox announced
that the party would “support” or create an
informal coalition with Bracken’s Liberal-
Progressive minority government, quelling
speculation that the province would quick-
ly be plunged into another election. For
many supporters of Social Credit in
Manitoba, however, the merge created
both distrust in the party’s new leadership
and “bewilderment and resentment,” par-
ticularly as the Social Credit election cam-
paign had focussed on Bracken’s role in
Manitoba’s economic crisis. Social Credit
supporters from across the province voiced
their opposition to the merge, particularly
the membership of the Social Credit
League and its affiliate, the Assiniboia
Social Credit Group, who announced to