Canadian Woman Minister

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30192, 25 July 1963, Page 2

Canadian Woman Minister

The youngest member of the Cabinet of the recentlyelected Canadian Liberal Government is Miss Julia LaMarsh, who has been made Minister of National Health and Welfare. She takes on responsibility for a department administering two billion dollars a year, writes Robert Moan in the “Christian Science Monitor.” If the Government goes ahead with its pledge* of a national medicare plan and pension provisions, her portfolio will assume “paramount political import," he say*. Before her entry into politics, Miss LaMarsh was ® lawyer, and member of the Canadian Bar Association. A partner in her father’s law firm in Niagara Falls, she has had experience ranging from defence counsel in murder

trials to township municipal solicitor. She grew up in southern Ontario, joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps in 1943, and later served as an interpreter in Allied intelligence. She studied for her law degree at the University

of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. Her interest in poitics grew, however, and, beginning in local Liberal Party association positions she progressed to provincial and national posts. In 1960 she entered the House of Commons after a by-election, and in spite of her newness in the House, she began to make her presence felt almost immediately. In her first session she rose 99 times to make speeches or ask questions on topics ranging, from modifications to a new Canadian army rifle to the Berlin crisis, and the criminal code in Canada. In the 1962 federal election her majority in the Niagara Falls riding was 11,000. In the 1963 spring election it was even more, and her vote was double that of her opposing candidates. What were her reactions to her new responsibilities? She is thinking of buying a wig. because “I won’t have much time now for a hair-dresser.”