Agnes Campbell (McPhail) Macphail (1890 - 1954)

Ancestors

Biography

“So I don’t live long. But I’ll live what’s left doing what I want to do.” -- On being told in 1938 that she had a heart condition and must “take it easy.”^[1]

Agnes Macphail was the first woman elected to Canada's House of Commons (1921–40) and was one of the first two women elected to the Ontario legislature (1943–45, 1948–51).^[2]

The unveiling of a commemorative bust of Agnes Macphail, House of Commons, Parliament Buildings

Born March 24, 1890, Agnes was the eldest daughter of farmer Dougald McPhail and Henrietta Campbell.^[3] She grew up with her two sisters on her parents’ farms, the first in Proton Township and the second at Six Corners in Artemesia, Grey County. She admired her parents, her father for his wit and intelligence and her mother for her thrift and steadfastness. In My Ain Folk, she wrote, "Perhaps if I owed him the ability to get into Parliament, I owed her the ability to stand it when I got there.” ^[4]

After graduating in 1910 from the Normal School for teachers in Stratford, Ontario, she taught school in Ontario and Alberta. While teaching near Sharon, Ontario, she became involved in the province's agricultural co-operative movement and joined the United Farmers of Ontario.

Agnes Macphail in front of Parliament Buildings in 1922

In 1921 she was elected to the House of Commons as the Progressive Party member for South-East Grey County. (She changed the spelling of her last name to Macphail around this time.) The 1921 federal election was the first one in which women had the vote, and Agnes was the only woman elected to Parliament that year. She served until 1940 when she lost her federal seat and entered provincial politics, becoming one of the first two women to be elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1943.^[5]

Although her original goal in entering politics was to support famers, Agnes also took up the cause of miners, immigrants, women, prisoners and other marginalized groups in Canadian society. She helped reform the country's prison system, founded the Elizabeth Fry Society, and was a tireless advocate for women's rights.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ Obituaries. (1954, Feb 15). The Globe and Mail (1936-Current) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.torontopubliclibrary.ca/docview/1289166287?accountid=14369
2. ↑ The Canadian Encyclopedia
3. ↑ "Ontario Births, 1869-1912," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FMXF-MBK : 15 January 2016), Agnes Mcphail, 24 Mar 1890; citing Birth, Proton Township, Grey, Ontario, Canada, citing Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,846,436.
4. ↑ Grey Highland Public Library, Agnes Macphail Website
5. ↑ The Canadian Encyclopedia
6. ↑ The Canadian Encyclopedia

See also:

• Wikipedia contributors, "Agnes Macphail," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agnes_Macphail&oldid=765573463 (accessed February 24, 2017).