Malvina Ménard Labine, Reeve of Rayside Township (1893 - 1967)

In late 1958 the lead story in northern Ontario was not the thousands of nickel miners out-of-work and in dire stress nor their upcoming Toronto meeting with Premier Leslie Font, but the upset victory of a 65-year-old grandmother with a grade school education as the reeve of Rayside Township, Sudbury District, Ontario. In Canadian provinces having rural municipalities the highest elected official of the municipality is a reeve - equivalent to a mayor in many other areas.

It seems that the only folks not surprised by Malvina Ménard Labine's upset win over the 41-year-old incumbent reeve were Malvina's neighbors and Malvina herself. So why would this elderly lady, untested in politics, run for reeve and, more importantly, how did she win?

Born into a poor family on 24 November 1893 in Azilda of Rayside Township, Malvina Ménard appreciated both hard work and sharing what she had with others. At thirteen she left home to work as a nursemaid. On the 12th of August 1912 she married Joseph Labine, a young blacksmith. They settled in a small shack on a farm just outside of Azilda.

Not afraid of hard work, Malvina farmed the property during the six months each year that Joseph left for the lumber camps. She hoed and sowed a one-acre garden, raised and milked the cows, picked fruit from the trees, fed the chickens and gathered the eggs and sold her farm products at market. During these years she also raised her family, which eventually reached twenty children. Every Saturday she hauled water up the hill, heated it in a wood stove and gave every child a bath. Sixteen of her children survived to adulthood - most raising families of their own. On 6 July 1940 Joseph Labine, a big jovial man of 228 pounds, went to market, ate a large lunch and dropped dead of a heart attack about 2:00 pm. Malvina had just given birth to their 20th child - a boy they called Bernard.

Malvina Labine, a widow at age 47 with nine children under sixteen years of age and nothing but debts to her name, reassessed her life. Born with a tough, never-give-up attitude, she sold five horses and her jalopy with bad brakes and bought a new tractor and truck. With the financial help of three sons working in the mines Malvina began life anew. Soon she replaced her shack of a home with a new home she built herself - a plain, strong home with room for all her family. She continued to work ever harder on the farm - pressing hay, threshing grain, picking potatoes and other crops, hoeing the garden, cooking meals and sewing and knitting clothes for the family. In addition, she worked odd jobs where she could find them - installing a heavy culvert on the roadway or serving as janitor at the new school. Her children helped where they could. With her children she was a loving, but strict mother - enforcing discipline and teaching them well.

Sooner than she expected, almost all her children had grown and left home. Now she had a big, empty home so she began to take in foster children. But she didn't just request a foster child, she asked for four foster children at once. After receiving two brothers and two sisters for foster care, Malvina then requested four additional foster children. Her new family continued to grow until she raised twelve foster children.

Born with a heart of gold and lots of compassion, Malvina was always there to help the less fortunate. A poor young boy never had the opportunity to fish; Malvina bought him a new rod and had her son take him fishing. A young girl's family could not afford a coat for her; Malvina helped the family buy a nice coat. More importantly, she kept up with each of 'her kids' to ensure they were doing well in school and often took them on outings. When a neighbor was sick, Malvina was there helping. When local miners went on strike and couldn't afford essentials for their family, Malvina quietly gave them cases of canned goods, children's clothes and baby food. She always kept ample supplies of meat, beans, corn, shortening, peanut butter, tomato juice and up to 400 loaves of dayold bread in the freezer.

When a neighbor lady saw hard times and needed help, Malvina quietly supplied her from her storehouse of goods - taking only a heartfelt “Thank You” for her good works.

Growing from a rural farming community to a suburb of Sudbury in the decade of the 1950's, Rayside Township with Azilda as its hub faced new challenges that were not being addressed to Malvina's and the townfolks' satisfaction. Tyne Castonguay, the incumbent reeve, seemed to care more for his patent medicine business than running the township. Malvina Labine had a reputation for getting things done so local folks asked her to run for reeve in the upcoming election. At first doubtful about running, she eventually consented. Once in the race, she ran hard and won the election. And, as is her style, her election party was at town hall where she passed out doughnuts, sandwiches and coffee to campaign workers of both sides.

So where did Malvina Labine garner all her support to defeat the incumbent reeve? Remember all those local children, women and families she helped over the years. They never forgot her and turned out in droves to vote for their dear friend. Of course, having sixteen children and numerous grandchildren didn't hurt either.

Malvina Ménard Labine served as reeve of Rayside Township from 1959-1961. In 1967 Malvina Labine died in Sudbury after living a hard, but fulfilling life. She is buried in Chelmsford - not far from where she lived most of her life. Malvina Labine's political beginnings bore fruit when in 1988 her grandson Guy Labine, son of Robert Labine and Hortense Joliat, became one of the youngest members elected as Municipal Councillor of the Town of Rayside-Balfour that incorporated the former Rayside Township. Guy served two terms as Municipal Councillor from 1988 to 1993.

There is a large album of photos of this family on our Facebook page: Facebook photo album: Famille Joseph et Malvina Labine, Azilda Ontario by André Labine