Edna Diefenbaker

She was born in Wawanesa, Manitoba, and worked as a schoolteacher at Mayfair Elementary School in Saskatoon before marrying John Diefenbaker in 1929.[1] Outgoing and vivacious, with a genuine concern for others, she was thought to be a popular teacher.

Her marriage brought an end to her teaching career, and Diefenbaker devoted her energies to the advancement of her husband's political career. She would visit towns before her husband so that he was prepared with information on the inhabitants.[2] She also edited her husband's speeches, and often acted as chauffeur, driving him to meetings. Perhaps most importantly, she helped him to overcome his shyness and develop into a "man of the people", which would help him in his future political successes.

Upon her husband's election as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament Diefenbaker worked on his behalf in an unpaid capacity. She was a constant presence in the visitor's gallery in the House of Commons of Canada, and played an important role in establishing close relationships between her husband and reporters in the Ottawa press gallery.[3]

She died of leukemia in 1951, six years before her husband became Prime Minister. MPs in the House of Commons of Canada gave her "unprecedented eulogies" for a non-MP.[1] John Diefenbaker later married Olive Palmer, his wife during his term as Prime Minister. Edna Diefenbaker is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery.

In 1982, Diefenbaker became the focus of Simma Holt's book The Other Mrs. Diefenbaker. Author Heather Robertson also wrote on her and other spouses of the Prime Ministers of Canada in the 1991 book More Than a Rose.[2]