Remembering Coun. Pat Wallace

A legend of municipal politics in Kamloops has died.

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Pat Wallace, who served 11 terms on council between 1980 and 2018, died at her Brocklehurst home on Saturday, Feb. 11. She was 90 years of age.

During her nearly four decades in politics, Wallace also staged unsuccessful runs for mayor and MLA.

KTW visited Wallace at her home in the RiverBend Seniors Community in Brocklehurst in October 2018, in advance of her final meetings at council before that year’s election, in which she decided against seeking re-election at the age of 85.

“I’m ready,” she said of her retirement.

Wallace arrived in Kamloops from Ontario in 1974 and began teaching employment prep at the newly minted Cariboo College, which opened its doors in 1970 and has since grown into Thompson Rivers University.

Wallace’s first political involvement came shortly after, in 1975, when she was elected to a provincial board established to create efficiencies among local agencies funded by the province.

Wallace was first elected to Kamloops council in 1980, serving the city for six years until an unsuccessful bid for the mayor’s chair in 1986, when she lost to John Dormer. Had Wallace won that election, she would have become the city’s first female mayor. Kenna Cartwright eventually shattered that glass ceiling five years later — the city’s lone female mayor to date — and Wallace never again ran for mayor.

After losing to Dormer, Wallace became executive assistant for Kamloops MLA (Social Credit) Claude Richmond. In 1991, she failed in her own provincial run — splitting the centre-right vote as a Socred candidate with Liberal Kimball Kastelen, resulting in the election of NDP candidate Art Charbonneau — and returned to the world of municipal politics in 1993 as city councillor.

From then on, Wallace would secure term after term for 25 years. In 1983, she became the first woman to be chair of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District. In 2019, Wallace was honoured with the Freedom of the City, Kamloops’ most prestigious civic honour. In 2021, she received the AIMCanada Lifetime Mentorship Award for her commitment to community and individual mentorship.

In October 2018, Wallace retired due to health issues. She had visual and hearing problems, in addition to continued pain from a fall in 2016 that left her concussed with a broken neck.

Wallace first became a councillor when the position was called alderman. In that October 2018 interview with KTW, she recounted meeting royalty, including Princess Diana, and prime ministers, from Brian Mulroney to Stephen Harper.

“It’s all changed,” Wallace said then of politics. “And everybody today believes we’re more crooks than we were back then.”

Asked how she fared in a world often known to be an old boys’ club, Wallace said: “From the time I got elected ‘till today, no man or woman ever hesitated to call me an asshole. They treated me both ways.”

See WALLACE, A7

ABOVE: A newspaper ad for Wallace’s first campaign in 1980, when she successfully ran for alderman (now known as councillor) on Kamloops council.