Residents of Warspite and surrounding districts were thrilled that Martha Bielish is one of the three recent appointments to the Canadian Senate.

Mrs. Bielish becomes one of the six to represent Alberta in the 102 member Senate on September 27. The only woman from Alberta, she is the 9th in the Senate and is the first woman of Ukrainian descent.

The appointment climaxes a long career in volunteer and public service work, which included a three-year term as the President of the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada.

The political field is not entirely new to Mrs. Bielish. At the municipal level, she served as school trustee, then ran provincially in this constituency. More recently, she participated in the committee work with the Federal Department of Manpower and Immigration.

In commenting on her appointment Mrs Bielish noted its significance in that the role of homemaker and volunteer is now recognized.

She sees certain priorities in her work. As a life-time resident of a farming community, her knowledge of rural Canada and its attending problems is broad. Human rights, especially the role of women, and the quality of family life in Canada are other mayor concerns.

Once a life-time appointment, legislation in 1965 limited the tenure of a Senator to age 75.

Other Alberta Senators are Donald Cameron, Earl Hastings, Harry Hays, J. Harper Prowse and Ernest Manning.

Mrs. Bielish will be sworn in officially on October 9 in Ottawa during the opening of Parliament.

Martha Bielish of Warspite has become a Canadian senator. She was appointed by Prime Minster Joe Clark.

Being a senator in this country is largely an honourary position. It is a reward for people who have served their community well and who have contributed time and effort to the political party in power.

Martha Bielish's appointment to the Senate in Ottawa is also symbolic of the successes, succeeding generations of immigrant people have worked toward in this country. Her ancestors came from central Europe to carve an existence from the central Alberta park land. She became a school teacher.

And her husband Joe is a small but successful farmer. This has left her ample time in years past to pursue her own interests, to make contributions to the community, principally the rural women's movement the world over and to become known beyond the confines of her immediate community - Warspite.

New challenges are ahead of her now. Her friends and neighbors wish her well in the airy atmosphere of official Ottawa. It is an altogether different world from the one he has known here at home.

I hope that - unlike many other senators - she will not now fall into oblivion in the red chamber on Parliament hill. Apart from her favorite cause - women's rights - there are other messages she can now take to her new colleagues and to the east: the people in power in Ottawa will have to pay more attention to the well-being of the agricultural industry in this country, if they don't want to run into very serious problems in the eighties.

A parallel example is is energy. In the sixties and early seventies many people warned of pending shortages, of the need to explore more expensive sources of fuel. They urged that Canada become self-sufficient from coast to coast. They weren't listened to. Things were great. Crude oil was cheap and gasoline was a bargain.

Now that the crunch is upon us w are scrambling and spending billions of dollars to make good past mistakes. Food may well capture attention in the eighties as energy does today.

Good luck, Martha!

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