Martha Bielish
{{short description|Canadian politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Martha P. Bielish
| honorific-suffix =
| image =
| image_size =
| caption =
| birth_name = Martha Palmarek
| birth_date = {{birth date|1915|10|20}}
| birth_place = Smoky Lake, Alberta, Canada
| death_date = {{death date and age|2010|5|18|1915|10|20}}
| death_place = Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| occupation = teacher, farmer
| spouse = Joseph Bielish (m. 1936){{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jN2PQS7WAHUC&q=martha+bielish+Joseph|title=Guide Parlementaire Canadien|year=1990}}
| children=one son
| parents =
| alma_mater=University of Alberta
| party = Progressive Conservative
| office = Senator from Alberta
| term_start = September 27, 1979
| term_end = September 26, 1990}}
Martha Palamarek Bielish (October 20, 1915 – May 18, 2010) was a politician, farmer, feminist, and teacher from Alberta, Canada. She served in the Senate of Canada as a member of the Progressive Conservative caucus from 1979 to 1990.
Early life
Bielish was born in 1915 in Smoky Lake, Alberta. She served in politics on the municipal level as an elected School Trustee.
Bielish ran for a seat to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1959 Alberta general election as a Progressive Conservative candidate in the electoral district of Redwater. She finished a distant third place in the three-way race behind Social Credit candidate John Dubetz and incumbent MLA Alfred Macyk.{{cite web|url=http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/administration/maps_choice.php?Year=1959&Constit=Redwater| title=Redwater results 1959| publisher=Alberta Heritage Community Foundation | accessdate=April 22, 2010}}
In 1965 she became president of the Alberta's Women's Institute.{{cite book|last=Sanderson|first=Kay|title=200 Remarkable Alberta Women|year=1999|publisher=Famous Five Foundation|location=Calgary|page=88|url=http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=917859|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130628062510/http://www.ourfutureourpast.ca/loc_hist/page.aspx?id=917859|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 28, 2013}}
Senate career
Bielish was appointed to the Senate of Canada on the advice of Joe Clark on September 27, 1979 and served until mandatory retirement on September 26, 1990. She was the first Ukrainian-Canadian woman to sit in the Senate.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.smokylake.com/history/people/bielishm.htm Martha Bielish appointed to the Senate Smoky Lake Signal, October 3, 1979, Volume 2, Number 22]
- {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=1190}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bielish, Martha}}
Category:Women members of the Senate of Canada
Category:Canadian senators from Alberta
Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Canada senators
Category:Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta candidates in Alberta provincial elections
Category:Women in Alberta politics
Category:Canadian people of Ukrainian descent