Barbara Hanley (1882 – 1959)

Barbara McCallum Hanley was a politician, the first woman in Canada to be elected mayor. Born in Magnetawan, Ontario, she moved to Webbwood, a small community west of Sudbury, in 1908. From 1923 to 1935, she served on the public school board, then spent a year on the town council. In 1936, on a platform of poverty relief, Hanley was elected mayor of Webbwood. Once in office, she voted to suspend her own salary and those of the council in order to buy Christmas turkeys for impoverished families. She was the only Canadian on the New York Sun's 1936 list of outstanding women. Questioned about women's suitability for public life, she stated, "the very fact I am in the work gives my answer to that." She served as Webbwood's mayor until 1944.

“I believe your two outstanding objections are: one, that I am a woman; two, that I am too generous with relief. I have no apology to make.”