CALL ME TRUE
CALL ME TRUE
A Biography of True Davidson
ELEANOR DARKE
NATURAL HERITAGE/NATURAL HISTORY INC.
Copyright 1997 Eleanor Darke
All rights reserved. No portion of this book, with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.
Published by Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc.
P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8
First Edition
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Darke, Eleanor
Call Me True
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-896219-34-9
1. Davidson, True, 19011978. 2. Women Politicians
Ontario - East York-Biography. 3. Politicians - Ontario
East York-Biography. 4. East York (Ont.) - Biography.
I. Title.
FC3099.E36Z49 1997 971.3'54104'092 C97-931447-X
F1059.5.E23D37 1997
Cover and book design by Norton Hamill Design
Cover photo Circa 1970. Ashley and Crippen
Back cover photo of True Davidson, 1922, Strasbourg, Saskatchewan, where she later recalled that she taught English, History, Science and Art in all collegiate grades and was principal of a 3-room High School and a 5-room Public School. She was then 21 years old. Courtesy David Cobden.
Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc. acknowledges the support received for its publishing program from the Canada Council Block Grant Program. We also acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of the Association for the Export of Canadian Books, Ottawa.
PRINTED AND BOUND IN CANADA BY HIGNELL PRINTING, WINNIPEG, MANITOBA
INTRODUCTION
Just call me True, shed say when being introduced. She didnt like being called Miss Davidson; despised Ms; and, much as she gloried in her position as Mayor of East York, was politically astute enough to avoid the over-use of her title. Throughout her political career, she used the name True to define her character, policies and beliefs. But what can we truly say about True? In 1968, she told a reporter that life in politics is like living in a goldfish bowl and the refractions mask what you really are. You have to let people think as they like and you go ahead and be as you are. If you have great luck and good friends you are successful. My life is an open book and sometimes I think its a cartoon. Her opponents would laugh at the supposed passivity of this statement, arguing that True never missed an opportunity to use the media to present her own image of herself. If she was a goldfish, she was one with a doctorate in the control of refractions. She told the same stories of her life repeatedly, carefully revealing only what she wanted while ensuring that the reporter got enough material not to feel the need to dig for more. She was content to be painted as a cartoon. It was politically effective and ensured some personal privacy. Cartoons, after all, communicate their message simply and clearly and are more quickly understood than a fully detailed drawing.
True was a complex personality; frequently contradictory in her opinions; changing opinions (and her vote) repeatedly on many issues. She could be irascible, demanding, opinionated and caustic, yet she was often kindly and she was always dedicated and deeply devoted to the people of her municipality. I hope that the reader of this book will find in it a more fully-fleshed True than the cartoon she projected to the newspapers, although I doubt whether anyone could capture all of her variations.
As she told Star reporter, Brian Swarbrick, in 1971, There are
This book and my search for the true True would never have happened without help from a long list of people. I never would have begun it without the encouragement and support of John Ridout, Chair of the East York Historical Society and of my publisher, Barry Penhale, of Natural Heritage Books. True would have approved of John and Barrys efforts; as she told the Barrie Kiwanis Club in 1928, anyone who did anything to promote Canadian literature was doing a service to his country.
The staff at Victoria College and the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library were very helpful. Special thanks are due to the staff of the Archives and Special Collections section of the York University Archives who helped me work through the large collection of Trues papers that were donated to them after her death. True was a pack-rat who didnt believe in wasting paper, frequently reusing the back of older documents and writings. Their patience and encouragement as I tried to sort out what was written when was very helpful. Since I did the research for this book while holding a full-time job, I am particularly appreciative of their willingness to try and work around my days off.
The written sources gave me the majority of the dates and events of her life but only a small taste of her personality. Fortunately, no one who met True ever forgot her and one of the great privileges I have had while working on this project has been the pleasure of meeting and speaking with some of the extraordinary people whom she knew. In fact, one of the most difficult parts of researching this book was deciding to stop interviewing. Every person I spoke to suggested at least two more people to whom I had to speak. It was hard to declare a halt. Meeting such fascinating people enriched me as much as they did the book.
I am especially grateful to her nephews, David and Michael Cobden, for all of their help and advice. While the list of the others who shared their memories of her with me in interviews and letters is too long to provide here, I hope they will recognize their contributions in the text and accept my sincere appreciation for their help and honesty. If this book succeeds in any way to effectively convey a true picture of True, it will have been because of the memories and opinions that they so generously shared with me.
Eleanor Darke, 1997
A CHILD OF CANADA
FAMILY
Jean Gertrude Davidson was born in 1901 in Hudson,Quebec. She assumed the nickname, True, early and reinforced its use throughout her life, even refusing to acknowledge any other name on occasion
Because her father was a Methodist minister, the family moved frequently. By the time True left high school she had moved nine times and had lived in four different provinces. Although it was common for the Methodist clergy to change churches frequently, moves were generally within the same or nearby conferences. Her father appears to have difficulties as a minister, necessitating more frequent, complete changes. Charlotte Maher, who knew True near the end of her life, recalled her saying that her father sort of got fired from some of his parishes.
True, herself, chose to regard these moves as a positive thing. As early as 1931, she was quoted as claiming Canada in general as her home, for, she explained, she had lived in almost every province.
True was enormously influenced by her father. She seems to have spent her whole life trying to live up to what she thought he wanted her to be, writing years later that:
...at school I was expected to top my class, and school, and even my province. Every time I met an expectation it became harder to face the next time I failed to do so...But it was not until I was a middleaged woman and my father was dying that I discovered that he had been fiercely proud of me all along, and only wanted me to be all that I was capable of being. Which is very different from being first. And the realization changed my entire life...
