I was pretty excited last Fall when I was entering Heritage Park to enjoy their Harvest Sale and noticed that they were building a new exhibit, "The Famous 5 Interpretive Centre"! I love Canadian History and and am especially interested in the role women have played in shaping it (something sadly lacking in the education system). I'm lucky to have friends who also find this kind of thing interesting. So, this week Michelle, Danaya, and I went on an afternoon adventure to the past! After a Yiddish lesson at the Montefiore Institute, shopping along the Main Street, an outdoor performance, and fresh baked cookies, we made our way to the 4pm tour at the Famous 5 Centre. The house is a duplicated (though somewhat modified) version of the house Nellie McClung lived in while in Calgary. The house itself was nice but nothing special. What did shine was the passionate and well-educated tour guide. It was a pleasure listening to him tell the story of Nellie McClung and her fight with the other 4 Alberta women to have women seen as persons according to the Canadian Constitution! A fight that took them all the way to England! A fight that was considerably harder than it should have been (I think the British were a little embarrassed that Canadians had to be told by them that the British North American Act assumed women to be persons). It took the work and support of many men and women to bring about the necessary changes to start Canada on a path to becoming egalitarian. These ladies (the famous 5 and my strong and smart friends in the pictures below) make me proud to be Canadian!
If there was a like button I would definitely be pressing it right now!
ReplyDelete