Tilly Rolston

Tilly Jean Rolston (née Cameron; February 23, 1887 – October 12, 1953) was a Canadian politician. She was the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of British Columbia for Vancouver-Point Grey from 1941 to 1953, and served as minister of education under Premier W. A. C. Bennett from 1952 to 1953.

Born in Vancouver, she attended the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Provincial Normal School.^[1] She worked as a schoolteacher in Vancouver before marrying Frederick James Rolston in 1909; they had three children together.^[1] She served as a director of the Pacific National Exhibition, and as a commissioner on the Vancouver Park Board from 1938 to 1946.^[1][2]

She was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia as a Conservative in the 1941 provincial election, becoming one of three MLAs representing Vancouver-Point Grey alongside Royal Maitland and James Alexander Paton,^{[1][3]: 198} and was re-elected in 1945 and 1949 as part of the Liberal-Conservative coalition.^{[3]: 208, 218} During that time, she served as chairperson of the Select Standing Committee on Social Welfare, and was part of the effort that allowed margarine sold in British Columbia to be coloured yellow.^[1] She left the coalition in March 1951 over the government's stance on hospital insurance, and sat in the legislature as an independent MLA before joining W. A. C. Bennett in the British Columbia Social Credit Party (Socred) in February 1952.^[4][5][6]

With the Socreds forming a minority government following the watershed 1952 election, Rolston was named minister of education in the Bennett ministry, becoming the second woman cabinet minister in British Columbia, and the first woman in Canada to have a portfolio.^[1][5][7] In that role, she brought in a new method of school finance that came to be known as the "Rolston Formula",^[6] and was also instrumental in introducing what was effectively a sex-education program into the school curriculum.^[1]

She lost to Liberal leader Arthur Laing in the 1953 election.^{[3]: 253 [6]} Despite her defeat, she remained education minister until her death from cancer four months later following an operation;^[6][7] she became the first woman in British Columbia to receive a state funeral.^[1]

Her grandson Peter Rolston served as Dewdney MLA from 1972 to 1975.^[1]

• "Tilly Rolston". leg.bc.ca. Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Retrieved October 18, 2024.
• Francis, Daniel, ed. (1999). Encyclopedia of British Columbia. Harbour Publishing. ISBN 1-55017-200-X.