Protest and Progress: Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton

Rice Sheppard, Harry Ainlay and Margaret Crang fought for the working people of Edmonton, Alberta through the dark days of the World Wars, the fragile prosperity of the 1920s and the grinding poverty of the Dirty 30s and Cold War repression. Sheppard helped found the United Farmers of Alberta which governed Alberta for 14 years. During the Depression he switched his allegiance to Aberhart's Social Credit movement. Harry Ainlay, active in the CCF and the Alberta Teachers' Association, served as mayor for four years. Margaret Crang played a leading role in the League against War and Fascism and attempted to form a United Front of Edmonton's Left. She pursued legal redress for immigrants and political and religious dissidents under wartime "security" prohibitions. Her act of defiance on behalf of the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War caused outrage across Canada. The three served together on city council during the Great Depression at a time the Labour Party held dominance in Edmonton's City Hall and fought side-by-side for the satisfaction of people's basic needs denied them by the existing system.…