Item 2008.3.1.210.7 - Ken Rutherford (Tape 1)

• Sound recording

1 audiocassette (92 min.)

Audio recording is of an interview by Bridget Moran with Ken Rutherford, educator and former municipal politician of Swift Current Saskatchewan. Rutherford was an Alderman prior to becoming Mayor of Swift Current from 1944-1952, he ran unsuccessful for the CCF in 1960 and later for the NDP. Rutherford ran for political office in BC in the electoral district of Fort George in 1963 unsuccessfully against Liberal MLA Ray Williston. The interview includes biographical information as well as memories of his career as a school teacher, his political aspirations and involvement with the CCF and later the NDP and the history of medicare in Canada.

Audiocassette Summary

• Rutherford provides genealogical information on grandfather and his mother (her family was from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan)
• Discusses his parent’s marriage
• Recalls schooling in Swift Current, Saskatchewan where he eventually becomes principal
• Rutherford notes he never went to university, but went to Normal School
• Talks about his wife and children
• Donley Hill
• Recalls joining the CCF and distributing pamphlets; recalls 1935 election and CCF getting few votes
• Recalls salary troubles at the school in Swift Current in the 1930s and being both the teacher and janitor
• He was Mayor of Swift Current from 1944-1952; and previously as Alderman and ran for the CCF in the federal election in 1953;
• Recalls spoiled ballots in the election
• Recalls getting involved with the issue of health premium payments in Swift Current c.1940s.
• Recalls the history of the fight for health care in Canada; and strike in Saskatchewan by doctors
• Recalls the national fight for Medicare – 1961
• Discusses Tommy Douglas; Mackenzie King
• Health care issues