Community Building

Joe Lougheed

[0:00 – 2:27]

It’s clear from what I’ve read and what I’ve learned that she was fiercely independent woman. In her time she and other prominent women of the day took a large part some of the earliest civic organizations in the city. They realized their roles in society, took part in trying to improve Calgary in the context of their time to try and make it better, and enhance the community in which she was from. She was noted as being a hostess and she had many events in this house, again promoting Calgary. She and my great grandfather would have been some of the earliest Calgary boosters. They obviously helped build many buildings downtown, but they went beyond that, promoting theatre, promoting the community as a whole. She was the founding president of the Victorian Order of Nurses, she was very involved in the Southern Alberta Pioneers’ Association. And she celebrated her past, but she recognized that to celebrate her past she also had to build the future of the city she was in. She very much did that, and it’s clear that she did it proudly.

I think they met at church. Calgary was a very small place. It is certainly likely that they were introduced intentionally, whether that was arranged or not we’ll never know.

I think that history will show that James Lougheed actually married well.

He on the other hand married into one of the most prominent Metis families and fur trading families of the day. He benefitted greatly from the extended family network that the Hardisty’s had. Again her uncle, Richard Hardisty, was very very prominent in the fur trade. It’s well known that Lady Lougheed’s aunt married Donald Smith who became Lord Strathcona, and the broader Hardisty network at the time was very prominent across Canada.

I think James Lougheed was very lucky to have married into a very close, close family.