Tilly Rolston

Education and Early Career

Tilly Rolston was educated at the Vancouver Provincial Normal School and the University of British Columbia in the first decade of the 20th century. She worked as a teacher in a Vancouver school until 1909, when she married Frederick James Rolston. She and her husband had two daughters and a son.

Rolston taught Sunday school on a volunteer basis and was a well-known and active community member. She was honorary president of the Women's Canadian Club, a member of the parent-teacher association, and was president of the Oratorio Society, Quota Club and the Travel Women's Club. Additionally, Rolston was the founding chairman of the Theatre Under the Stars and a board member of the YWCA auxilliary and of the Vancouver Symphony Society. She became director of the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, before being elected to the Parks Board in 1938. Rolston was also an active member of the Provincial Council of Women.

Her involvement in numerous community associations provided her with excellent training and leadership skills to enter the political arena. Rolston was well-known for her sharp wit, strong debating skills, and unconventional public image. She was described as jovial, and was known to enjoy cocktails, wearing costume jewellery, playing bridge and smoking cigarettes (once accidentally lighting her hat on fire in a public meeting). She was also a respected world traveller.

Member, Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

Tilly Rolston was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in 1941. (See also Members of Provincial and Territorial Legislatures.) At the time, she was 54 years old, already a grandmother. Given how poorly represented women were in politics at the time, to be elected as a woman, and a woman of that age, was significant. She called being a grandmother a “state of mind” and made it clear that she did her job well while also managing to “do a spectacular granny act.” Her grandson, Peter Carson Rolston, a United Church minister, followed in her political footsteps. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia and served with the provincial NDP during the government of Dave Barrett, from 1972 to 1975.

At the start of her political career, Rolston sat as an MLA representing the Conservative Party and the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey. She was re-elected in 1945 and again in 1949 as part of the Liberal-Conservative coalition government. (See also Coalition Governments in Canada.) Rolston crossed the floor in 1952 and later joined the upstart Social Credit Party. In 1953, Rolston was recognized in the Victoria Daily Times as having been personally responsible — along with premier W.A.C. Bennett — for securing the 1952 victory of the BC Social Credit Party. W.A.C. Bennett served as premier for an unprecedented — and, as yet, unequaled — 20 years.

During her time as an MLA in the 1940s and 1950s, Rolston served for several years as the Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Social Welfare. This committee undertook studies and made recommendations for policy on a wide variety of issues, including pensions for mothers and the aged, drug addiction and unemployment.

Did You Know?
Among Tilly Rolston’s many initiatives and efforts as an MLA, she was also responsible for ensuring that margarine could be coloured yellow in British Columbia. From nearly the time of its creation, margarine had been considered a potential threat to the dairy industry and was banned outright until 1948. When federal laws were relaxed in that year, provincial governments began enacting their own laws to control the sale, colour and advertising related to margarine. Rolston argued that because the cost of butter was so high, BC consumers deserved a better-looking alternative. British Columbia was one of the first places in Canada where margarine could legally look like butter.

Minister of Education

Tilly Rolston was named Minister of Education in the Bennett government of 1952 and, despite her brief tenure (as she would pass away the next year), implemented important reforms. She introduced the Rolston Formula, a public school funding formula that released municipalities of some of the economic burden of providing public schooling.

Rolston was also minister of education when an updated personal development curriculum titled Effective Living was introduced for middle and high school students in 1952. This was controversial at the time, as parents felt this was government intrusion into an area of education — particularly sex education — that ought to be kept within the family. Rolston argued that the updated curriculum did not, as its critics claimed, promote sexual promiscuity. Rather, the curriculum primarily focused on social relationships and customs of the type that habitually precedes marriage, such as dating and courtship. Rolston defended the reforms, arguing: “We want no sausage-machine citizens. We want no tremendous amount of uniformity. We want a measure of individuality and the Education Department is trying to lead the way.” Rolston further argued that this was an important part of a broader social development curriculum, stating: “We must be vitally concerned with the kind of person the pupil is becoming.” She also said: “The greatest resource in all of Canada is our young people and we in British Columbia want the best for them.”Rolston’s approved changes to the Effective Living curriculum remained in place for several years. Despite losing her seat in Vancouver-Point Grey to the Liberal Party leader, Arthur Laing, in 1953, Rolston was kept on as education minister by W.A.C. Bennett.

Did You Know?
Tilly Rolston and four other women MLAs in the BC Legislature of the mid-1940s united in an effort to make the government acquire paintings by Emily Carr, who was unknown to the male representatives. The five women, representing three different parties, refused to back down on their demand the government acquire seven original Carr masterpieces. Within just a few years, Carr had become internationally famous, and the paintings — originally purchased for $1,100 — were worth a fortune.

Death and Legacy

Tilly Rolston died in 1953 after a valiant two-year struggle with cancer, one she fought largely in private while working tirelessly as the provincial education minister. The province’s flags were lowered to half-mast upon the news of her demise. She subsequently received a state funeral, and the business of the legislature was suspended so that her colleagues could pay their respects. She was the first woman in British Columbia history to be honoured with a state funeral. Later in 1953, the Women’s Canadian Club, of which Rolston had been an honorary president, created the Mrs. Tilly Rolston Cancer Research Fund.

Rolston was a trail-blazing politician and a respected social reformer. She was an important and vehement advocate for women, as well as family courts, free maternity benefits, and allowances for mothers.