Margaret Scrivener

Who was Margaret Scrivener?

Margaret Mary Scrivener was a politician in Ontario, Canada. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1985, and was a cabinet minister in the government of William Davis. Scrivener was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.

Scrivener was born in Toronto, and was educated at St. Mildred's Lightbourn School. She worked for the Toronto Telegram newspaper during and after World War II, and covered Marilyn Bell's historic swims across Lake Ontario. She was also active in several Rosedale community groups, and was a prominent figure in the struggle to preserve the ravines from development. She served as chair of the Ontario Planning Association, and was a member of the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board. From 1962 to 1970, she and her husband owned a 120-hectare dairy farm near Keswick, Ontario.

She was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1971 provincial election, where she won a substantial victory in the Toronto constituency of St. David. She was diagnosed with breast cancer before entering the legislature, but did not share this information with her colleagues. She served as a backbench supporter of Bill Davis's government, and was named a parliamentary assistant in 1974. Returning with a reduced majority in the 1975 election, she was named to cabinet on October 7, 1975 as Minister of Government Services. After a cabinet shuffle on February 3, 1977, she was named Minister of Revenue.