Remember political trailblazer Norma Price

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/07/2020 (2136 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We are approaching the 100th anniversary of the birth of Norma Price, Manitoba’s second female cabinet minister, and the first from a Winnipeg riding.

On Aug, 19, 1920, Norma Lorraine Killeen was born in Winnipeg. She was educated at Immaculate Conception School and St. Mary’s Academy and became a trailblazer in business and politics.

According to the Manitoba Historical Society, Price (the married name she used as a politician and businesswoman) was the first female general manager of a major Canadian hotel when she took that job at the Viscount Gort and later became sales and public relations manager for the International Inn (now the Victoria Inn). She then moved from the hotel business to insurance and became an underwriter for Sun Life Assurance Company, later ensuring that Sun Life’s human resource manuals became gender neutral. In May 1977, Price became the first woman to address the Sun Life Assurance leaders conference in San Diego, Calif.

Prior to the 1973 provincial election, Price defeated Ted Speers to win the Progressive Conservative nomination for Assiniboia but went on to lose to Liberal incumbent Steve Patrick by 796 votes. In 1976, she again won the Assiniboia nomination and this time defeated Patrick by 3,592 votes. She was the only woman elected in that general election.

Premier Sterling Lyon appointed her labour minister and minister responsible for the civil service.  In 1978, she became tourism and cultural affairs minister. In 1980, when the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra was on verge of bankruptcy with a debt of over $700,000, Price was the lead minister as the government intervened and the WSO survived. After four years of travelling the province, Price chose not to run in the 1981 general election and married John Heeney in 1962.

Price was active in volunteer work. She and Peter Liba co-chaired the first Variety Telethon in March 1981, which raised about $45,000, later used to set up a children’s electronic limb bank. She also served 10 years as chairperson of the prison chaplains’ at-home visitation program and was also active in Meals on Wheels and the United Way.

Norma was inducted into the Manitoba Women Business Owners Hall of Fame in 1996, and was named one of the YWCA’s women of the year in 1977.

Norma Heeney died in Winnipeg on Feb. 24, 2008. Five MLAs from three different parties paid tribute to her in the Manitoba Legislature on Sept. 18, 2008.

Fred Morris is a community correspondent for St. James. Reach him at fredmorris@hotmail.com