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Laura Harris, ATA News
A fighter and a survivor. A defender of teachers and an advocate for students.
For her embodiment of all these roles throughout her career in public education, Bauni Mackay will be presented with the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) Honorary Membership at the Annual Representative Assembly (ARA) this month.
From the start of her teaching career in 1963, Mackay demonstrated her drive to support her colleagues and the profession through her extensive involvement in local and provincial Association matters. After holding the positions of vice-president of the St. Albert Protestant Separate Local and communications officer for the North Central Teachers’ Convention Association, and serving for many years as an ARA delegate, Mackay realized her aspirations for a position on Provincial Executive Council in 1986. She served as district representative for Edmonton District until 1991, the year she became ATA vice-president.
In 1993, just two weeks after Ralph Klein was elected premier of Alberta, Mackay was elected ATA president and proceeded to lead the teaching profession through one of its most turbulent eras. The “Klein Revolution” saw education funding hacked by 12.4 per cent, followed by a much-resented wage rollback and many painful staffing cuts. It also introduced education reforms that included a new framework on education accountability. With perseverance and dedication to the welfare of the teaching profession, Mackay ground her way through six tumultuous, Klein-ruled years as ATA president before stepping down in 1999.
Always a high school English teacher at heart, Mackay had the ability to phrase key messages on complex issues in a way that connected with the public and generated support for teachers and the education system. A perfect example of her skill appeared in a 1995 ATA News article on the provincial government’s accountability framework—an issue teachers continue to battle today. Mackay said of provincial achievement testing: “Only those things that can be measured will be measured. The public will never know how many children come to school well fed, happy and ready to learn.”
Mackay has definitely earned her Honorary Membership. However, looking back on her constant efforts to better the profession, support her colleagues and affect the lives of her students, it’s easy to see that, in the eyes of the Association, the honour is all ours.
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