Margery Ward

Ward grew up in Bass River, New Brunswick. She came from a family of eight children, six girls and two boys. She left there as a teenager after dropping out of high school and moved to Toronto. She worked as a grocery store clerk for twenty years. During this time she completed her high school diploma at night school. She attended York University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science. She went to work at Manufacturer's Life Insurance Company as a data processing manager and as a computer systems designer. She was active in the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, eventually becoming secretary of the Toronto local.^[1][2]

Ward ran in the 1987 provincial election in the riding of Don Mills. She placed third behind winner Liberal Murad Velshi tallying 6,3681 votes, about 24% of the votes cast.^[3] She tried again in the 1990 provincial election and this time was elected over Velshi by 746 votes.^[4] Ward attributed her win to her opposition to the rent control system as 60% of the voters in the riding were tenants. She said, "The current legislation provides no protection whatsoever for the tenants."^[5]

She was appointed parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Government Services on October 1, 1990, and held this position until her death from cancer in early 1993.^[6]

York University now offers a Margery Ward Memorial Bursary in political science.^[7]