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Now it’s Burtin Fripp’s turn as Agnes Macphail Award winner

Leaside activist Carol Burtin Fripp said she is flattered to receive this year’s Agnes Macphail Award.

Toronto and East York Community Council accepted the recommendation from the Agnes Macphail Recognition Committee on Feb. 5 to name Burtin Fripp as the award winner.

Burtin Fripp said she knew the award well, having nominated former East York mayor and MP Alan Redway for the award in 2013. She currently serves as co-president of the Leaside Property Owners Association with 2008 Agnes Macphail honouree Geoff Kettel. But she was not expecting to receive the award herself, she said in a phone interview.

She understands she was nominated by community members, including former community newspaper publisher Harry Goldhar and former East York councillor Norman Crone, Burtin Fripp said.

The award was established by the Borough of East York in 1994 in honour of Agnes Macphail (1890–1954), an organizer and progressive politician who was the first woman elected to Parliament in Canada. She was also one of the two first women elected to the provincial legislature, representing York East riding, which included much of East York. Recently her image has appeared on the Canadian $10-bill.

The Agnes Macphail Award annually recognizes an outstanding volunteer living within the boundaries of the former borough. Burtin Fripp is the 25th recipient of the award.

Carol Burtin Fripp
SPEAKING OUT: Carol Burtin Fripp represents local ratepayers in a presentation to a June 2015 meeting of the TTC.

She described most of her work in Leaside with the LPOA as focusing on keeping the community feel of the area, preventing the flood of outside traffic, and challenging developments that are “too large and could break up the whole sense of neighbourhood.”

She has been a fixture at community meetings and in negotiations with developers, political representatives and city staff.

She also spent 15 years of her professional career as producer of the TVO show, Speaking Out.

The award is to be presented to Burtin Fripp on March 24, the anniversary of Macphail’s birth.

— With files from Rodger Burnside and Brian Baker