Barbara Hanley

Barbara McCallum Hanley, née Smith (March 2, 1882 - January 26, 1959) was a Canadian politician, who served as mayor of Webbwood, Ontario from 1936 to 1944. She was the first woman in Canadian history to serve as a mayor.

Background

Born in Magnetawan, Ontario to parents Henry John Smith and Catherine Mitchell, she was educated at the North Bay Normal School and taught in Trout Creek, Emsdale and Chetwynd before moving to Webbwood, 70 km west of Sudbury, in 1908. She married Joseph Hanley, a Canadian Pacific Railway foreman, on 27 August 1913. She subsequently served on the public school board from 1923 to 1935, and then served one year on the town council.

She was also cofounder of a local theatre troupe, the Webbwood Dramatic Society.

She was the niece of Samuel Kedey, who was a mayor of Arnprior in 1902, and the sister of Robert Smith, who served as mayor of Cochrane in 1934-35 and 1944-45.

Mayoralty

On January 6, 1936, Hanley defeated Robert E. Streich in Webbwood's mayoral election. She garnered 82 votes to Streich's 69. Early media coverage focused on the question of whether she would continue her housekeeping duties while serving as mayor, to which she responded that "Webbwood is hardly a big enough place for me to give up my housework just to be mayor." She was formally sworn into office on January 13, although the first formal meeting of the new council had to be postponed due to a snowstorm.