For her 85th birthday, former city council member Stella Locker was treated to a surprise luncheon at the Mystery Lake Hotel, which featured appearances from old friends and colleagues.
One of the lead organizers of this July 10 get-together was current city council member Judy Kolada, who wanted to recognize Locker for all the work she’s put into the local government from 1989 to 2014.
“Stella’s municipal service spans over six terms on council and she’s served under three mayors,” said Kolada, who worked alongside Locker for a good chunk of that time. “Her motto was always ‘tell it like it is’ and she’s someone who keeps people on their toes when their were on council.”
But Locker’s legacy in the Hub of the North extends beyond that quarter century she spent in those council chambers.
In fact, Locker is one of the foundational members of the community, having arrived in 1963, six years after Thompson was established as a “planned community” thanks to an agreement between the provincial government and Inco Limited.
While Locker initially moved to Thompson to continue her career in nursing, she encountered a pretty significant roadblock in this pursuit and turned to real estate instead.
“My husband had his broker’s license and he was also an insurance broker,” Locker said in a follow-up conversation with the Thompson Citizen. “I came in in the afternoon just sort of doing clerical work. That wasn’t good enough for me, so I got my broker’s license a year later.”
From there, Locker did her best to integrate into the broader community, becoming a member of charitable groups like the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire and helping found one of Thompson’s oldest annual traditions.
“We used to have, in Flin Flon, a music festival that I really thought was great,” she said. “I talked them into getting all the information from Flin Flon and we started the Festival of the Arts here and then I ended up being the president of that.”
When Thompson was officially incorporated as a town in 1967, Locker started to get more involved in local politics as a citizen and became the chairperson of the city planning commission, a position she would hold until 1972.
On top of her volunteer work and growing reputation as a skilled real estate broker, Locker would continue to explore the ins and outs of government service during the 1980s.
Not only did she serve on the province’s University Grants Commission and become a chairperson for the city’s industrial commission from 1982 to 1984, but she would later run for a council seat in 1989, despite harbouring some reservations about her own ability.
“When I went on council at that time they had engineers, geologists, lawyers, doctors, people that I had something to gain from,” said Locker. “And I thought ‘what am I bringing there?’ other than ‘ok, I know what’s happening in the community.’”
Throughout her 25 years on the council, Locker would eventually find her place and established herself as “the outspoken one,” especially whenever the topic of “land issues” came up.
“Whenever land issues were on the agenda the old boys took turns turfing Stella out of chambers, citing ‘conflict of interest’ because of Stella’s involvement with real estate,” said Kolada, who was first elected to city council in 1995. “However, one day she showed up with a legal opinion which was very specific on what would constitute a conflict of interest. From that time forth she was able to offer her expert advice.”
Besides this kind of political theatre, Locker was a very active member of the council, serving as deputy major and undertaking a lot of lobbying work for the Manitoba Association of Urban Municipalities (the precursor to the Association of Manitoba Municipalities).
Even after she stepped away from council in 2014, Locker hasn’t lost any of her work ethic and continues to put in long hours at Locker’s Real Estate Brokers in The Plaza mall.
And while she won’t be involved in the city’s upcoming municipal election in the fall, Locker said any prospective candidate for city council should be friendly, community oriented and willing to learn.
“Everything was really a good learning experience,” she said. “I think if you want to really grow in a community you really have to get involved and do things. You can’t just get the profits from somebody else.”
