In Branch, N.L., women govern. And men aren’t complaining
The tiny town of 230 seems to have found winning formula in exclusively female council
Mallary McGrath of Branch, N.L., was just a little girl when she saw the virtue of community activism.
Back in the early 1990s, as Newfoundland was devastated by the collapse of cod stocks, the local fish plant closed in the tiny town on the Cape Shore of the Avalon Peninsula, about a 90-minute drive southwest of St. John’s.
Her late mother, Elaine, took McGrath to a protest. Her great-aunt Hannah Corcoran — “there was just no stopping her when it came to advocating for Branch” — spoke to the rally.
“That sort of sparked something in me,” McGrath told the Star. “It just totally speaks to the idea of the women being in charge in rural communities.”
Now 27, and already remarkably experienced, McGrath was one of five women acclaimed recently to a town council that’s been all-female since the last municipal election in 2013.
“I think that in rural communities, especially in Newfoundland and Labrador, a lot of the time it’s been women in the communities who have been leaders,” McGrath said.
“We see that it’s the women who are running the church organizations, the community centre. It’s not rare to see women in positions of leadership in our community.”
On town council, Mayor Kelly Power and incumbent councillors Alice Mooney, Angie Power and McGrath will be returning without needing to canvass for the province’s Sept. 26 municipal elections. Newcomer Jennifer English, a nurse, was also acclaimed.
In Branch, women get active. And they get active young.
Priscilla Corcoran-Mooney was just 30 when elected mayor in 2006. Mayor Kelly, as the current mayor is known, was 39 when she first took office four years ago. “We’re women power!” the mayor told the Star. And for her it’s a hands-on job.
Council puts on a “Singing Kitchen Meal” every two weeks between January and March and “I’m in the kitchen cooking, I’m one of the cooks. I’m not the one who sits down and gives the orders.
“I help run our Santa Claus Parade. I’m chair of the recreation committee. I lead our Remembrance Day celebration. I’m involved a lot.”
The acclamations show voters in Branch are more than happy with such efforts.
“We’re well pleased here with the job the council’s done,” retired electrician Eugene Mooney told the Star.
He said women have run things on the home front for generations in his part of the country, in his case his wife taking care of six kids while he was working all over the country for years “chasin’ big money.”
For her part, McGrath first won a council seat at just 21 when she was acclaimed in a byelection six years ago. She was re-elected four years ago, defeating a field that included a couple of men.
She’s so young, she can’t even remember the last male mayor of Branch about 20 years ago. And she’s unaware of any grumbling from men about the need for gender parity.
“I’ve never in my time heard any negative comment regarding the gender of those on council,” McGrath said. “I feel like we deal with all issues as fairly and unbiased as we can.”
The most enduring issue locally is a boil-water order that’s been in place as long as McGrath has been alive, owing to the contamination of beavers and dust and such in the large pond from which water is drawn.
“I’ve never lived in Branch when it was safe to drink the water from the tap,” she said. “It’s a very fragile water supply.”
But the town is putting in a new water line in hopes of alleviating the problem, she said.
A longstanding problem in Branch, as in many rural communities, was the poor quality of the roads. “Our roads were like cow-pats,” Mayor Kelly said. This summer, a good deal of repaving was done. The roads are in much better shape — a state of affairs for which council, Eugene Mooney said, gets lots of credit.
The council posts are part-time volun- teer positions. McGrath works full time as executive director of Planned Parenthood in the province. She says the conventional notion that women leaders work in a more consensus-oriented, less egotistical manner than men turns out to be largely true in her experience.
Though “I would be lying if I said that we never disagreed. When you have five passionate leaders in a room you’re bound to disagree from time to time. It would be pretty boring if we didn’t.”
The town of about 230 was settled in the 18th century by an Irishman and retains that culture today, peopled by hosts of Powers, Mooneys, McGraths and such. Eugene Mooney, for instance, rattled the telephone number for Councillor Alice Mooney off the top of his head because she’s married to his first cousin.
Though it was hard hit in the ’90s, the local economy has taken a turn for the better in recent years. “I think there was over three million pounds of crab lined out in Branch last year,” McGrath said. “There’s a lot of long liners in Branch.”
With the economic uptick, young families have moved back and Branch is one of the few places in the string of communities along the Cape Shore facing such issues as the need for a new playground.
In recent years, people have also built summer or retirement homes in the community, the mayor said, and sitting right on the Atlantic Ocean “we have a lot of people coming here for surfing.”
Meanwhile, the woman’s touch in politics has made itself known in many small ways.
Power said she wondered, when first elected in 2013, why flowers were sent only at local funerals. Now they go to welcome newcomers, those returning to Branch, and gift baskets go to new mothers whenever a baby is born.
Not surprisingly, Mayor Kelly has a role in such goodwill measures.
For instance, Mrs. Annie English, now 103, is Branch’s oldest citizen. And every year, she gets a birthday bouquet from council.
“She’ll be 104 on January 10th,” the mayor said. “Every January 10th I travel to Placentia, pick up the flowers, and I personally drop them off on behalf of council.”
Little wonder the people of Branch seem to be the most satisfied municipal voters in Canada.