DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

ROBINSON, ELIZA ARDEN – Volume XIII (1901-1910)

d. in Victoria 19 March 1906

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

The Right to Vote in Municipal Elections
Original title:    Part of the Main

Source: Link


Jessie TURNBULL (McEwen) fought for the right to vote at all levels – municipal, provincial, and federal – as did other suffragists in Ontario and other Canadian provinces:

In 1877 [McEwen] joined Emily Howard Stowe [Jennings*] and others to form the Toronto Women’s Literary Club, which had as its aim ‘to secure a free interchange of thought and feeling upon every subject that pertains to women’s higher education, including her moral and physical welfare.’ Meeting weekly, the club supported the causes of prohibition, improved working conditions for women, and women’s suffrage. It was instrumental in persuading the legislature of Ontario to allow qualified single women and widows to vote on municipal by-laws. This small concession in 1882 seemed to give the club the impetus in March 1883 to disband and then immediately to announce its reorganization as Canada’s first suffrage society, the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association, with McEwen as president. In her acceptance speech she noted that she was the ‘first woman who has occupied this or a similar chair in Canada.’”

 

To learn more about winning the right to vote in municipal elections, we invite you to consult the following lists of biographies:

Dominion of Newfoundland
◀◀  4 5 6 8 9 10  ▶▶