Lois Elsa Hole will be as well remembered for her bestselling
gardening books as for her role as Alberta's 15th Lieutenant-Governor.
Often referred to as the "Queen's gardener", she brought a touch
of earthiness and down-home charm to the viceregal position,
insisting on hugging everyone who needed it.
Hole normally kept a busy schedule but she spent several months
in 2003 and again in 2004 away from public life as she rested
up from her fight with cancer. On Nov. 24, 2004, she asked the
Chief Justice of the Alberta Court of Appeal, Catherine Fraser,
to swear in the new provincial cabinet in her place.
Hole was born Lois Elsa Veregin in Buchanan, Sask., a small
rural village north of Regina. She moved to Edmonton in her
mid-teens.
She married Ted Hole, an agriculture student at the University
of Alberta and son of a wealthy Edmonton family. In 1952 the
couple bought a farm in St. Albert, Alta. overlooking the Sturgeon
River.
The Holes eventually focused on growing vegetables, a business
that grew into Holes Greenhouses & Gardens Ltd. The couple's
sons Bill and Jim joined the business in 1979 and it is now
the largest retail greenhouse operation in western Canada. Ted
Hole died in March 2003 after his own lengthy battle with cancer.
Lt.-Gov. Lois Hole chats with the
troops
Hole wrote six gardening books, all Canadian bestsellers, and
wrote gardening columns for the Globe and Mail, Edmonton Journal,
and the Edmonton Sun. She appeared regularly on CBC-TV's Canadian
Gardener and wrote for the Old Farmer's Almanac Gardening Companion.
Her newest book is a collection of life stories, photographs
and growing information entitled I'll Never Marry a Farmer.
The title comes from a statement she made as a child to her
mother after a long day on her grandmother's farm.
Deeply involved in her community, Hole served on many farming,
gardening and education boards and commissions. In 1995 she
was named the Edmonton Business and Professional Woman of the
Year and in 1999 she was appointed a Member of the Order of
Canada. In 2003, a new facility under construction at the Royal
Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton was named the Lois Hole Hospital
for Women.
In 1967, upset there was no French education at her sons'
school, she ran for the position of school trustee. Hole served
in various school board capacities for more than 30 years. In
2002 she launched a legacy fund to support libraries and established
an arts awards program in the name of her office.
Hole called Tommy Douglas a hero and suggested he inspired her
outspokenness. Not afraid of controversy, she campaigned for
condoms in high schools, gay rights and AIDS education. In 1998
she was elected Chancellor of the University of Alberta where
she served until 2000 when she stepped down to accept the appointment
of Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta.
From the moment she received the invitation from Prime Minister
Jean Chretien, her approach to the viceregal position included
lots of farm-girl charm.
"I nearly fell off my chair," she said about her conversation
with Chretien.
She sought to dispel an aura of stuffiness around the post and
even tried to influence the government. In April 2000 she spoke
out about Premier Ralph Klein's Bill 11 to expand private health
care. Her comments seemed to suggest that she would consider
withholding royal assent of the bill. But a week later she assured
Albertans she would fulfill her duties and sign the bill into
law.
Her hugs were perhaps the most striking departure from the manners
of other Lieutenant-Governors. Whenever she visited a school
she would hug and kiss throngs of children and she was also
always ready with a full cheek-to-cheek hug where handshakes
would normally suffice.
