Edmonton City Council In 1951, Wilson was nominated by the Edmonton Labor Council to run for a seat to Edmonton City Council in the
municipal election. She was defeated, finishing tenth among thirteen candidates. She ran again the
following year and was elected, taking fifth place. Wilson was re-elected in
1954,
1956,
1958,
1960,
1962 and
1964. She retired from council in 1966.
Alberta Legislature While still a member of Edmonton city council, Wilson ran for a seat in the Alberta Legislature in the
1959 general election. She ran as a Social Credit candidate in the new electoral district of Edmonton North, which she won over three other candidates. She continued to hold her seat on Edmonton council while she served as an MLA. She would represent Edmonton-North in the Legislature until 1971. On November 30, 1962, Wilson was appointed to the cabinet as a Minister without portfolio by Premier
Ernest Manning. The appointment made her the second woman in the history of Alberta to be appointed to cabinet (following UFA's
Irene Parlby). Shortly after the 1963 election, Wilson pushed for movement on the Daylight Saving Time front. Alberta's urban municipalities were in favour of daylight saving time and pressured the provincial government to either hold a plebiscite on the question or allow municipalities to locally observe daylight saving time. A joint motion of Calgary City Council and Edmonton City Council for a plebiscite was put to the Legislature in July 1963, with the support of Wilson, who was both a Social Credit cabinet minister and an Edmonton alderman, but without success. In the
1967 Alberta general election, Wilson defeated three candidates, including future NDP MLA
Gordon Wright, She received 38 percent of the votes cast in Edmonton-North. In 1971 Wilson's constituency of Edmonton North was abolished during redistribution, and she ran for re-election
that year in the new electoral district of
Edmonton-Kingsway. She was defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate
Kenneth Paproski who was part of the P-C wave that took power that year. ==References==