Agnes Macphail

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Agnes Macphail (March 24, 1890 — February 12, 1954) was the first woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons, and one of the first two women elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Active throughout her life in progressive Canadian politics, Macphail worked for two separate parties and promoted her ideas through column-writing, activist organizing, and legislation.

Agnes Campbell McPhail was born to Dougald McPhail and Henrietta Campbell in Proton Township, Grey County, Ontario on March 24, 1890. In the early years of her life, Agnes was called "McPhail", but after visiting Scotland on a trip this changed. She rediscovered her familial roots and the traditionally spelling of "Macphail" (with no capital 'P' as in MacPhail).

Attending the teachers college in Stratford, she taught in schools in southwest Ontario. While working in Sharon, Macphail became active politically, joining the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) and its women's organization, the United Farm Women of Ontario. She also became a columnist for the Farmers' Sun around this time.

Macphail was elected to the House of Commons as a member of the Progressive Party of Canada for the Grey Southeast riding in the 1921 federal election. She was the first woman Member of Parliament (MP) in Canada. Macphail was re-elected in the 1925, 1926, and 1930 federal elections.

In 1935, Macphail was again elected, this time as a UFO-Labour MP for the Grey Bruce riding. As a member of the UFO, and she was a strong voice for rural issues. Another one of Macphail's issues was penal reform; her efforts led to the formation of the investigative Archambault Commission in 1936. Macphail's concern for women in the criminal justice system led her, in 1939, to found the Elizabeth Fry Society of Canada, named after British reformer Elizabeth Fry.

As a radical member of the Progressive Party, Macphail joined the socialist Ginger Group, faction of the Progressive Party that later led to the formation of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). She became the first president of the Ontario CCF in 1933. However, she left the CCF in 1934 when the United Farmers of Ontario pulled out due to fears of Communist influence in the Ontario CCF. While Maphail was no longer formally a CCF member, she remained close to the CCF MPs and often participated in caucus meetings. The CCF did not run candidates against Macphail in her three subsequent federal campaigns.

Causes she championed included pensions for seniors and workers' rights. MacPhail was also the first Canadian woman delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, where she worked with the World Disarmament Committee. Although a pacifist, she voted for Canada to enter World War II.

In the 1940 election, she was defeated. With the death of United Reform MP for Saskatoon City, Walter George Brown, a few days after the election, MacPhail was recruited by the United Reform Movement to run in the by-election to fill the seat, but was defeated by 700 votes.

Out of office, she wrote agricultural columns for the Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto. Following a family tragedy in her home town, Macphail moved to the Toronto suburb of East York, Ontario and rejoined the Ontario CCF in 1942 becoming its farm organizer.

In the 1943 provincial election, Macphail was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the Ontario CCF representing the suburban Toronto riding of York East. She and Rae Luckock were the first women elected to the Ontario Legislature. She was the first woman sworn in as an Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP). Although defeated in the 1945 provincial election, she was elected again in the 1948 election. Macphail was responsible for Ontario's first equal pay legislation, passed in 1951, but was unable to continue her efforts when she was defeated in elections later that year. At that time, Macphail was barely able to support herself through journalism, public speaking and organizing for the Ontario CCF.

Macphail never married. She died February 13, 1954, aged 63, in Toronto, just before she was to have been offered an appointment to the Canadian Senate. She is buried in Priceville, Ontario, with her parents and Gertha McPhail, one of her two sisters. Her tombstone is incorrectly spelled "McPhail".

A prestigious public speaking contest is held in her name annually in East York, Toronto, Ontario. There is also an apartment building in Windsor, Ontario named after her ("Agnes Macphail Manor" at 860 Mercer Street).

In a contest run by former Ontario MPP Marilyn Churley, Agnes Macphail was voted as the Greatest Ontario Woman. On June 24 2006, a cairn commemorating Agnes Macphail's life was unveiled in Hopeville, Southgate Township, Grey County, Ontario. Signs, at the boundaries of the Grey Southeast riding that Miss Macphail represented from 1921 to 1940, have been placed on Grey County road signs, reminding travellers of the woman who was Canada's first woman MP and the people and area she represented.

[edit] External links

• Celebrating Women's Achievements - Agnes Campbell Macphail
• Federal Political Experience
• The Heritage Foundation History Minute film about Macphail's efforts at penal reform

Preceded by Robert James Ball	MP for Grey Southeast, ON 1921–1935	Succeeded by District Abolished
Preceded by District Created	MP for Grey—Bruce, ON 1935–1940	Succeeded by Walter Harris