Charlotte Elizabeth Whitton (March 8, 1896 – January 25, 1975) was a Canadian feminist and mayor of Ottawa. She was the first woman mayor of a major city in Canada, serving from 1951 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1964. Whitton was a Canadian social policy pioneer, leader and commentator, as well as a journalist and writer.
Charlotte Elizabeth Hazeltyne Whitton was born in Renfrew, Ontario, a small Ottawa Valley town about 100 km northwest of Ottawa.
She attended Queen's University where she was the star of the women's hockey team and was known as the fastest skater in the league. In 1917, the year she earned a Master of Arts degree, she became the first female editor of the Queen's Journal newspaper.
Upon graduating from Queen's, she became a civil servant as the private secretary for Thomas Low, MP and Minister of Trade in Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's first government.
When Low lost his parliamentary seat, Whitton then focused on her role as founding director (1922) of the Canadian Council on Child Welfare, and worked there until 1941. It became the Canadian Welfare Council, now the Canadian Council on Social Development, and helped bring about a wide array of new legislation to help children and immigrants.
In 1934, Whitton was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire at the 1934 New Year Honours.
She served on the League of Nations Social Questions Committee.
Whitton was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Queen's in 1941.
She published two books in 1943.
Despite her strong views on women's equality, Whitton was a strong social conservative, and did not support making divorce easier. She was a regular columnist in Ottawa's daily newspapers.
Whitton was elected to Ottawa's Board of Control in 1950, leading the city-wide polls, and started her term on January 1, 1951.
Upon the unexpected death of mayor Grenville Goodwin in August of the same year, only some eight months into his term, Whitton was immediately appointed acting mayor, and on 30 September 1951 was confirmed by city council to remain mayor until the end of the normal three-year term.
Whitton is sometimes mistakenly credited as the first woman ever to serve as a mayor in Canada, but this distinction is in fact held by Barbara Hanley, who became mayor of the small Northern Ontario town of Webbwood in 1936. Whitton is the first woman to serve as mayor of a large Canadian city.
Whitton was elected Ottawa mayor in the general municipal election in her own right in 1952, serving until 1956. She turned it into a full-time job.
She ran again for mayor of Ottawa in 1960, and was elected, serving until 1964, when she was defeated on her try for re-election.
Whitton was a staunch defender of Canada's traditions, and, as Ottawa mayor, condemned Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson's proposal in 1964 for new national flag to replace the traditional Canadian Red Ensign. Whitton dismissed Pearson's design as a 'white badge of surrender, waving three dying maple leaves' which might as well be 'three white feathers on a red background,' a symbol of cowardice. 'It is a poor observance of our first century as a nation if we run up a flag of surrender with three dying maple leaves on it,' she said. For Whitton, the Red Ensign, with its Union Jack and coat of arms containing symbols of England, Scotland, Ireland and France (or a similar flag with traditional symbols on it) would be a stronger embodiment of the Canadian achievement in peace and war.
She became well known for her assertiveness, and for her vicious wit with which many male colleagues, and once the Lord Mayor of London, were attacked. She is noted for the quotation: "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult."
On October 23, 1955, while mayor, Whitton appeared on the Sunday evening American game show What's My Line.