Claudette Millar

Claudette Marie Hall was born in Belleville, Ontario, moving with her family to Kitchener when she was 12 years of age. She grew up talking about political issues with her family around the dinner table. Upon completing university and working abroad for a few years, she returned to Kitchener in the mid 1960s, marrying Clare Millar.

In 1970, Millar attended a Preston Council meeting where a contentious development project was going to be approved without much public consultation. Motivated by this meeting, Millar ran for office and was elected as the last mayor of the former town of Preston.

In 1973, the amalgamation of Hespeler, Preston and Galt into the City of Cambridge took place as well as the formation of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. Millar became the first mayor of the new City, overseeing its creation and dealing with the devastating flooding of the Grand River in 1974. In 1978 Millar was re-elected Mayor of Cambridge, a position she held for the next ten years.

As mayor, Millar served on numerous city and regional committees, commissions and boards. She was particularly involved in urban core revitalization, riverbank development and environmental issues.

In the late 1980s, Millar became a member of the Ontario Municipal Board and travelled across the province for the next ten years hearing appeals on planning issues and assessments.

In 2003 Millar was elected as a Regional Councillor representing Cambridge; she continued in that role until late 2014.

Photograph courtesy of the University of Waterloo Library, Kitchener Waterloo Record Photographic Negative Collection.