Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 22/99) - A little more than 20 years ago, three Northern women helped put an end to years of sexist exclusion.

In 1978, Susan Spring, Darlene Curley-Gadowski and Sheila MacPherson were accepted into the page program at the House of Commons, and in doing so, assisted in breaking down the barriers that kept women out of that role for so many years.

Prior to that landmark event, young men were hired as pages, but in 1978, the program opened up and first-year, female university students across the country were given the chance to apply to work as a page for a period of one year while they pursued their studies.

As most pioneers will testify however, it wasn't always that easy.

"It took a fair amount of adjustment for some of the (Members of Parliament). Some of them weren't used to having women as pages. I remember one MP who used to call the female pages by pursing his lips and blowing kisses at us," said MacPherson, now a partnered lawyer in a firm in Yellowknife and the law clerk of the NWT legislative assembly.

Spring and Curley-Gadowski also have stories about the lecherous advances they endured, some of which were severe enough that they wanted to have one MP removed from the Legislature.

"I was so humiliated once, but someone saw what happened and talked to the head page," said Curley-Gadowski, who does design and drafting work for the city of Edmonton now.

"He said to keep my mouth shut and it would be dealt with. Then the MP apologized to us and the female pages were given the right of refusal. We didn't have to go to him."

But hand in hand with all of the strife and sexual politics was the honour of being three of the first female pages in the House of Commons.

"That was me. That was my little day in history," said Curley-Gadowski.

Spring said it was that honour and sense of belonging that made her transition from the small town of Inuvik to Ottawa University easier.

"I don't think I ever would have made it through without the two of them. You go from a little town of 5,000 to downtown Ottawa. It was good to have the commonality of the North and the understanding of these women," said Spring, the manager of the Iqaluit Housing Authority.

MacPherson agreed.

"There's a tremendous sense of alienation in a big city. I don't know if I would have liked university as much without having the support."

Twenty years later, the trio still keeps in touch with one another and remembers how the efforts of some MPs helped fight off their loneliness and homesickness.

Along with taking the pages for meals to the parliamentary dining room, Wally Firth, the MP for the Northwest Territories at the time, planned a Northern dinner for the women.

"We were having a dinner on our residence floor and he brought down three of the largest arctic char I have ever seen. We couldn't believe he would do this for us. There were a lot of people impressed with the Northern hospitality," said Spring.

Hailing from Pine Point, a now-defunct mining town near Hay River, Curley-Gadowski also said the food was one of her fondest memories and that the shoes and uniforms she was required to wear were horrible.

"I hated the skirt and the ascot and oh God, I hated those shoes," said Curley-Gadowski, referring to the specially-made shoes that were constructed to be durable in order to survive the intense amount of walking and errand running for MPs that a page does.

For MacPherson, some of these errands leave her curious two decades later.

"I remember once passing a note between Diefenbaker and Trudeau and it would be really tempting to know what was in that note. Here were two such incredible historical figures and I'm a little bit curious about what they're passing notes on."

She added that she often feels amazed that she was granted the opportunity to learn so much about the history of Canada.

"There were days that I would draw a little breath and say, I just can't believe I'm here, a little girl from Frobisher Bay."