Nellie McClung

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Nellie McClung from The National Archives of Canada
Nellie McClung from The National Archives of Canada

Nellie McClung, born Nellie Letitia Mooney (October 20, 1873 - September 1, 1951) was a Canadian feminist, politician, and social activist. She was a part of the social and moral reform movements prevalent in Western Canada in the early 1900s. She was also the grandmother of outspoken Alberta judge John McClung.

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[edit] Biography

Born in Chatsworth, Ontario in 1873, she later moved with her family to a homestead in the Souris Valley of Manitoba. Between 1904 and 1911, Nellie McClung, her husband Wesley and their family, resided in Manitou, Manitoba. They had purchased a home which had been earlier build by the pioneering Scurfield brothers, Thomas and Ralph, who had immigrated from Haswell, England to Manitou in the 1890's. This original house has been re-located to the Archibald Historical Museum, located at La Riviere, Manitoba, where it has been restored and can be toured by the public.

She lived in the West for the rest of her life in Manitou, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Victoria.

She published her first novel Sowing Seeds in Danny in 1908. It was a national best seller and was followed by numerous short stories and articles in Canadian and American magazines. In 1911, the McClungs moved to Winnipeg. The women’s rights movement in Winnipeg embraced her. An effective speaker with a sense of humour, she played a leading role in the successful Liberal campaign in 1914.

Her great causes were women's suffrage and temperance. It was largely through her efforts that in 1916 Manitoba became the first province to give women the right to vote and to run for public office. The Government of Canada followed suit that same year. After moving to Edmonton, Alberta, she continued the campaign for suffrage. She championed dental and medical care for school children, married women’s property rights, mothers' allowances, factory safety legislation and many other reforms. McClung was a supporter of the then popular social philosophy of eugenics and campaigned for the sterilization of those considered "simple-minded." Her promotion of the benefits of sterilization contributed to the passage of eugenics legislation in Alberta.[1]

It was a time of sweeping social change. Western Canada had seen major immigration in the decades preceding and following the turn of the 20th century. Changes to farm life, the plight of immigrants, conditions in cities and factories, prohibition, women's suffrage, World War I, and the Depression were historical events influencing McClung. Called a crusader by some, she was nevertheless a pragmatic leader who put words into action.

She served as a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1921 to 1926. She was one of The Famous Five (also called The Valiant Five), with Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy and Louise McKinney. The five put forward a petition, in 1927, to clarify the term "Persons in Section 24 of the British North America Act of 1867. This section had served to exclude women from political office. The petition was successful, clearing the way for women to enter politics in Canada.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Fiction

  • Sowing Seeds in Danny (1908)
  • The Second Chance (1910)
  • The Black Creek Stopping House and Other Stories (1912)
  • The Next of Kin (1927)
  • Purple Springs (1921)
  • When Christmas Crossed 'The Peace' (1953)
  • Painted Fires (1965)
  • All We Like Sheep (1976)
  • Be Good to Yourself (1980)
  • Flowers for the Living (1991)

[edit] Non-Fiction

  • In Times Like These (1915)
  • Three Times and Out (1918)
  • Clearing in the West (1935)
  • Leaves from Lantern Lane (1936)
  • More Leaves from Lantern Lane (1937)
  • The Stream Runs Fast (1945)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Marsh, James. Eugenics: Keeping Canada Sane. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved on: April 25, 2008.

[edit] External links

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Legislative Assembly of Alberta
Preceded by
Charles Wilson Cross
Albert Ewing		 MLA Edmonton
1921 - 1926		 Succeeded by
John Lymburn
Charles Weaver
Charles Gibbs
Walter Prevey
David Milwyn Duggan
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