Jane Bigelow (1928 - ) was a politician and the mayor of London, Ontario from 1972 to 1978. She also served as controller on the city's Board of Control before and after her term as mayor.
She was born in Toronto in 1928 and educated at St. Clement's Girl's School and the University of Toronto where she completed a B.A. in Physical and Health Education in 1950. She trained as a teacher and taught in high schools in Ottawa, Hamilton and Edmonton.
After settling in London in 1965 with her husband and two children, she took courses at the University of Western Ontario towards a B.A. and began a master's program in urban studies. She participated in the founding of the Central London Association and the Urban League, a group that was designed to coordinate the efforts of local citizens' groups. She also became involved in the London Council of Women, serving on the committee which helped save the Broughdale Lands. Bigelow was active in local and provincial NDP organizations, serving as vice-president of the provincial party from 1968 to 1972. She organized several conventions for the party and was responsible for the Handbook for Municipal Politicians, published in 1968.
In 1969, she was elected to the Board of Control and when she was re-elected in 1971, she received the most votes out of all the controllers making her the deputy mayor. When mayor Fred Gosnell resigned for health reasons in February 1972 she took over as acting mayor. In March 1972, Bigelow was elected mayor by council and in 1973 she was elected mayor by the public in a general election. She was re-elected in 1974 and 1976 but was defeated in the 1978 election by Al Gleeson, an instructor at Fanshawe College.
As mayor, Jane Bigelow advocated for accessible day care, better public transit with special fares for senior citizens, neighbourhood improvement schemes, funding for the arts, more parks and better city planning. She was criticized for being uninterested in development. During her mayoralty, London received a triple A rating from two independent American organizations. In her last years of office, she became interested in financial planning and tax reform for municipalities. She was actively involved in several joint municipal-provincial organizations and represented London's interests at both higher levels of government. In 1974, she was invited with six other Canadian mayors to visit Israel and in 1976, she was a representative to the Habitat Conference and the Conference of Mayors held in Milan.
Some of the major issues during her term as mayor included the Talbot Square development, the London Regional Art gallery, the restoration of the Middlesex Court House and the possibility of siting a prison in London.
She was elected to the Board of Control in 1980 but did not run in 1982. She was later employed by Employment and Immigration Canada. She was honoured with several awards and recognitions for her public service.
One of seven children, Richard Maurice Bucke was born on March 18, 1837 at Methwold, Norfolk, England to parents Horatio Walpole Bucke and Clarissa Andrews Bucke. His parents emigrated to Canada in his first year and settled in London, Ontario. At 16 Bucke left home and moved to the United States, where he worked in several locations as a labourer. In 1856 Bucke travelled to the Sierra Nevada where he joined forces with the prospectors Allen and Hosea Grosh. Hosea died within the year of blood poisoning, and in 1857 Bucke and Allen Grosh were lost in a snowstorm. They went 5 days and 4 nights without food or fire, until they arrived at a small mining camp. Grosh died of exhaustion and exposure, while Bucke recovered, despite losing one foot and part of the other to severe frostbite.
Upon his return to Canada in 1858, Bucke enrolled at McGill University to study medicine. He graduated in 1862 with the distinction of being the gold medalist of his year and winning a prize for his thesis, "The Correlation of Vital and Physical Forces." After spending time in Europe for post-graduate studies he returned to Sarnia to take over his late brother's medical practice. He was summoned to California in 1864 to give evidence in the Comstock Lode Litigation before returning to Canada in 1865 where he married Jessie Maria Gurd and settled down to practice medicine in Sarnia for the following ten years. Bucke and his wife had 8 children: Clare Georgina (1866 - 1867), Maurice Andrews (1868 - 1899), Jessie Clare (1870 - 1943), William Augustus (1873 - 1933), Edward Pardee (1875 - 1913), Ina Matilda (1877 - 1968), Harold Langmuir (1879 - 1951) and Robert Walpole (1881 - 1923). His first born, Clare Georgina, died at 10 months old, and his eldest son, Maurice Andrews, was killed in an accident in 1899.
Bucke was appointed Medical Superintendent at the new mental hospital in Hamilton in 1876, and after a year he was transferred to the Ontario Hospital in London where he served for 25 years. Bucke read Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" in 1867 and claimed it to be one of the most important events of his life. He travelled to New Jersey to meet Whitman in 1877 which marked the beginning of a long, close friendship between the two men. Upon Whitman's death in 1892, Bucke became one of his literary executors and was a pall bearer at his funeral.
Bucke was one of the first of his time to depart from orthodox therapeutics at the Asylum. By 1882 he had abolished the medicinal use of alcohol in the Asylum and by 1883 he had discontinued the use of physical restraints and initiated an open-door policy. He also pioneered many surgical "cures" for lunacy, including gynaecological surgery.
Bucke was an active writer, and his many noted works include several psychiatric papers, "Walt Whitman, a biography of the man," "Man's Moral Nature," and "Cosmic Consciousness," the last of which has been held in high esteem for many years and reprinted many times since its publication.
Bucke was one of the founders of the University of Western Ontario's Medical School and in 1882 was appointed Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases, as well as elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Bucke delivered the opening academic lecture of the year at McGill University by request of the medical faculty in 1891. He became President of the Psychological Section of the British Medical Association in 1897, and the following year he was elected President of the American Medico-Psychological Association.
Bucke died suddenly after slipping on the veranda of his home and striking his head on February 19, 1902. He is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, London, Ontario.
The London and Area Council of Women was founded on February 14, 1894 as the Local Council of Women, London. In 1990, a motion was passed by the executive to change the name of the council from the London Council of Women (LCW) to the London and Area Council of Women (LACW). The objective of the council is, “To draw together the women of London in greater unity of thought, sympathy and purpose to further the application of the Golden Rule to society, for the development, improvement and happiness of mankind.” The logo of the council is a bow bearing the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would that they do unto you.”
The LACW is comprised of individual members and members of its federated organizations which include women's groups, service clubs and volunteer organizations. The president of each federated organization is named a vice-president of the LACW executive and has a single vote. The executive of the LACW also includes a president, an executive vice-president and elected and appointed officers who hold positions such as treasurer, secretary, registrar and standing committee officers.
The LACW is part of a hierarchical organization of Councils of Women, answering to the Provincial Council of Women of Ontario (PCWO) and the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC). The NCWC is a member of the International Council of Women (ICW).
Throughout its history, the LACW has held regular meetings and organized events to encourage political engagement, educate the public on various issues of importance to women, raise funds and promote culture and heritage. In addition to this, the LACW has been active in lobbying the municipal, provincial and federal governments. As a member of the PCWO and the NCWC, the LACW proposed resolutions which were debated, voted on and formalized into briefs which were submitted annually to the provincial and federal governments.
Western's Caucus on Women's Issues was formed in 1980 to promote and safeguard the interests of women at the University of Western Ontario and its affiliates. Its objectives are: (1) to cultivate a sense of community among women at the university, (2) to encourage the integration of findings from feminist research into curricula at UWO and its affiliates and (3) to promote a work environment that facilitates the full professional development of all women employed at UWO and its affiliates.
The Caucus held lecture series, sponsored a women's studies essay award and hosted a brown bag lunch series to foster discussion. The group also produced several documentaries about the experiences of women and minority groups in post-secondary institutions including Breaking the Trust (1986), The Chilly Climate (1991), Backlash to Change (1996) and Voices of Diversity (2008).
In addition to this, the Caucus mobilized its membership around issues of importance to women, forming committees to address particular issues and to ensure that women would have meaningful input into initiatives undertaken by the university. The Caucus gave recommendations on the university's sexual harassment policy and race relations policy, submitted proposals for affirmative action/ employment equity and gave input during the university's strategic planning process.
The Women's Studies Committee of the Caucus on Women's Issues raised awareness about courses focused on women and ensured that library holdings supported women's studies. The committee compiled the “Directory of Women's Studies Courses” which, in the absence of a formal women's studies program, identified courses which fell into the realm of women's studies - courses which previously had not been identified as such. In 1981, courses identified as “women's studies” were offered for the first time.
The Caucus actively promoted employment equity (previously known as affirmative action) at Western, submitting in 1982 a brief on the status of women that contained a proposal for affirmative action. In 1986 Western received the Ontario government's employment equity award and in response to this, Constance Backhouse released the report, “Women faculty at UWO: reflections on the employment equity award.” Constance Backhouse researched the history of women at Western extensively in writing this report and conducted additional research on women at Western for the U.W.O. law archives and in preparation for celebrations marking 100 years of women at Western.