Downtown

A postcard showing Woodward’s department store building. Text at the bottom of the postcard reads “C. Woodward Ltd. Department Store, Edmonton, Alberta.”

My Grandma Going Out into the World: Working at Woodward’s

Harma-Mae Smit

Facing boredom, depression, and loneliness, 1960s stay-at-home mother Harma Smit decided to get a job.

In 1967, when Harma found a job at Edmonton’s Woodward’s department store, it was just becoming more common for married women to seek work outside the home.

In this addition to ECAMP’s labour series, Harma-Mae Smit recounts her grandmother’s experience in the retail workforce. Relying on family reflections, Smit discusses community reactions to her grandmother’s decision to work, her positive experience as an employee at Woodward’s for nearly two decades, and the material and mental benefits that the added income had for her grandmother and the rest of the family.

Happyland

Elizabeth Cytko and Toryn Suddaby

One hot summer Sunday in 1910, Edmontonians lined up for ice cream in a tiny downtown park called Happyland. A scandal ensued. Our latest ECAMP story is a comic tale about those wicked delights, and why Edmonton police and City Council threatened to “out-Toronto Toronto.”

This addition to our labour history series was written by Elizabeth Cytko and illustrated by Toryn Suddaby.

Station of Broken Promises

Adrian Pearce

Previously, ECAMP presented a story from an A-Channel employee who decided to cross the picket line during the 2003-4 strike. Adrian Pearce – a cameraman who helped lead the strike – submitted this response. Read what the strike was like for workers who held the line for 166 days.

Waltzing With the Angels: The Metis Ironworkers Who Built Edmonton’s Downtown

Alvin Finkel

The people who did the most dangerous jobs constructing the skyscrapers in downtown Edmonton in the 1960s and 1970s were almost all Metis ironworkers. That included the CN Tower.

Edmonton Streetcar 33: The Highs and Lows of a Public Transit Vehicle

Adeline Panamaroff

Relying only on volunteer labour, the need to fabricate many of the mechanical and structural parts from scratch, as well as [funding grants from] which did not come on a constant schedule, this rebuild of Edmonton streetcar No.33 took over a decade to complete.