Harry Ainlay

Harry Dean Ainlay (January 3, 1887 – March 12, 1970) was a Canadian educator and politician, noted for his many years of service in Edmonton, Alberta, as a teacher and principal with Edmonton Public Schools and as a long time member of Edmonton City Council, including three consecutive terms as Mayor of Edmonton.

Early life

Harry Ainlay was born in Brussels, Ontario to Watson and Emily (née Sparling) Ainlay, and earned his teaching certificate in that province. He came to Alberta in 1907 to help his carpenter father and settled near Stavely for several years before moving to Edmonton in 1912. In 1911, he married Edith Hammill; the two would remain married until her death in 1959.

Ainlay spent several years in the real estate business, then returned to school at the University of Alberta. Upon his graduation in 1920, he returned to teaching, in the Edmonton Public Schools system. Ainlay served as vice-principal of the Queen Alexandra School and principal of the Garneau and Strathcona High School, now Old Scona Academic High School.

Once out of office, Ainlay made his first bid for mayor in the 1936 election, finishing third of five candidates as incumbent Joseph Clarke was re-elected. He made two subsequent unsuccessful attempts to return to aldermanic office (in the 1937 and 1938 elections) before taking three years off from municipal politics. His 1947 win was notable because it marked the first election in which the mayor was elected to a two-year term.

As mayor, Ainlay introduced daylight saving time in the city after city residents voted in a 1946 plebiscite in favour of the change and after the Government of Alberta refused to bring it in province-wide. Government offices in Edmonton abided by the city's DST, although the government opposed the time change. The next session of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta passed legislation outlawing the use of daylight saving time in Alberta, and Edmonton returned to standard time until Alberta adopted DLT following a successful vote held concurrently with the 1971 Alberta general election.

Harry Ainlay did not seek re-election in the 1949 election, due to health issues arising from a serious fall he had sustained working on his retirement home in BC.

In 1966, the newly constructed Harry Ainlay High School was named in his honour. He left an endowment for a $500 scholarship to be given in his name to a graduating student planning on pursuing a career in Education.