January 17, 1974 - Pauline McGibbon

Human Rights a Day

Ontario’s Pauline McGibbon is appointed the Commonwealth’s first woman lieutenant governor. Pauline Emily Mills was born in Sarnia, Ontario on October 20, 1910. She married her high school love, Donald McGibbon, in 1933, with whom she graduated from the University of Toronto’s Victoria College. At a time when women were just starting to break through gender barriers, McGibbon achieved many firsts. She was the first woman chancellor of the University of Guelph and the first woman chancellor of the University of Toronto. When she sat on the boards of George Weston, IBM, Imasco and Mercedes-Benz, she was the first woman to do so. On January 17, 1974, when the Canadian government announced that Mills would sit as Ontario’s lieutenant governor, she made history three times over. Not only was she the province’s and Canada’s first female to take on the vice-regal’s role, but she was the first in the entire Commonwealth. She held the position from April 10, 1974 until 1980. Before, during and after her post as the queen’s representative, McGibbon was actively involved in arts and cultural activities, chalking up yet another first in 1972 as the first woman president of the Canadian Conference of the Arts. McGibbon suffered a stroke in 1995 and died in Toronto in December 2001.