Salome Halldorson
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Elin Salome Halldorson (December 29, 1887 – May 31, 1970) was a politician in
Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...
,
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. She served in the
Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba () is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at List of Manitoba genera ...
from 1936 to 1941 as a member of the Social Credit League. She was the second woman and the first woman of
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ic origin to serve in the provincial legislature.


Early life

Halldorson was born to Halldor Halldorson and Kristin Palsdottir in Lundar, Manitoba. She was educated at Wesley College in
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
and the
University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...
, receiving a
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degree. Halldorson worked as a teacher of languages, teaching
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,
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and
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from 1918 to 1938 at Jon Bjarnason Academy, a private school started by the Icelandic Lutheran Church in 1913.


Career

She was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1936 provincial election, defeating
Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1925 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics there was no Liberal-Progressive Party, as such. The term generally referred to candidates endorsed by Lib ...
incumbent
Skuli Sigfusson Skuli Sigfusson (October 1, 1870 — November 27, 1969) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba on three occasions: from 1915 to 1920, 1922 to 1936, and 1941 to 1945. Early life Sigfusson was born ...
by 156 votes in the constituency of
St. George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...
. She was the first woman elected to the legislature since the resignation of Edith Rogers in 1932. The Social Credit League won only five seats (out of 55) in this election, but held the balance of power by maintaining
John Bracken John Bracken (22 June 1883 – 18 March 1969) was a Canadian agronomist and politician who was the 11th and longest-serving premier of Manitoba (1922–1943) and later the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1942–194 ...
's Liberal-Progressive government in office. In 1940, the party formally entered an all-party
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with the Liberal-Progressives,
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and
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. Independent
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(MLA)
Lewis Stubbs Lewis St. George Stubbs (June 14, 1878 – May 12, 1958) was a prominent judge and politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1936 to 1949 as an Independent, He promoted left-wing and socially progress ...
was initially the only legislator not to join the government. Social Credit split on the coalition issue, and Halldorson broke with the rest of her caucus to serve as the legislature's second opposition member. The Social Credit League subsequently expelled the other four MLAs, although they continued to identify themselves as representatives of the party. The reconstructed Social Credit League endorsed Halldorson's decision, and
Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made t ...
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William Aberhart William Aberhart (December 30, 1878 – May 23, 1943), also known as "Bible Bill" for his radio sermons about the Bible, was a Canadian politician and the seventh premier of Alberta from 1935 to his death in 1943. He was the founder and first le ...
also supported her. The 1941 election greatly reduced Social Credit as a political force in the province. All of the anti-coalition candidates were defeated, and Halldorson finished a distant second against Sigfusson in St George. In addition to her career in the legislature, Halldorson served as vice-president and president of the Manitoba Social Credit League in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1943, Halldorson contested a federal
by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...
in Selkirk as a candidate of the
Social Credit Party of Canada The Social Credit Party of Canada (), colloquially known as the Socreds, was a populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadian social credit movement. Origins ...
. She came a very distant third, finishing almost 9,000 votes behind successful candidate
William Bryce William "Scottie" Bryce (September 7, 1888 – June 17, 1963) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He briefly served as leader of the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), although he never served in the Legislative Assembly of ...
of the
Cooperative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; , FCC) was a federal democratic socialistThe following sources describe the CCF as a democratic socialist political party: * * * * * * and social-democraticThese sources describe the CCF as ...
. She was re-nominated in the 1945 provincial election, but declined to stand. Her brother
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also served in the Manitoba assembly after her stint there.


Later life

Halldorson later taught at
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,
Transcona Transcona is a ward and suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba, located about east of the downtown area. Until 1972, it was a separate municipality, having been incorporated first as the Town of Transcona on 6 April 1912 and then as the City of Transc ...
and at Balmoral Hall. In 1953, she wrote against proposed anti-discrimination legislation as unduly restricting the freedom of employers.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halldorson, Salome 1887 births 1970 deaths Manitoba Social Credit Party MLAs Women MLAs in Manitoba Halldorson, Elin Salome 20th-century Canadian women politicians 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba