A hundred years of women having the vote--well, some women.

Crowson, Belinda

There is often an assumption that when women received the right to vote provincially in 1916, that it was the first time women in Alberta had ever voted. This certainly was not the case. As early as the late 1800s, some women were permitted to vote municipally under very strict conditions.

For example, the first woman to vote in Lethbridge was Mrs. W.R. Barker who voted in 1897. She was a recent widow and voted in municipal and school board elections as the head of household. In 1910, the municipal franchise in Alberta was extended to all widows and spinsters (but not to married women). (1) A woman's right to vote municipally often was dependent on how much property she owned. Married women were usually denied the vote as the property was often her husband's. In some cases, if a couple's combined property was more than twice the amount necessary to be able to vote, then both spouses could vote. In some communities, women (including married women) could vote municipally depending on their municipality and if they met the conditions that, usually related to property rights. At the municipal level, women who owned property could make the case of "no taxation without representation" as the reason they had the right to vote. Since they had to pay taxes on the property they owned, it was felt they should have the right to help determine who made the rules as to how the community was run.

In 1912, the Lethbridge Herald noted that the names of more than 300 women were included on the voting list for the upcoming municipal election. Considering the fact that there were only about 3,000 voters on the entire list, this was approximately 10 per cent of the eligible voters. The Herald noted, though, that it could not be certain how many would vote. Flaving the right to vote did not always translate into actually voting. (2)

Not until 1918 (after Alberta women won provincial suffrage) did women in all municipalities in Alberta have the right to vote at the municipal level. Commented the Lethbridge Herald,

   In all cities in Alberta everyone over
   twenty-one years and who has the
   requisite residence qualifications shall in
   the future have a right to vote in any
   municipal election except an election
   called to pass upon a money by-law
   according to a decision reached by the
   municipal law committee of the legislature
   Friday morning. (3)

Also in 1918, the right to vote was extended to renters, who, not being property-owners, had previously been banned. The extension of voting to women was also part of a larger fight for a more general extension of voting rights to more than just well-to-do white men.

In the West women first earned provincial suffrage rights in three provinces in 1916--Manitoba (January 28), Saskatchewan (March 14) and Alberta (April 19). Other provinces followed (for example British Columbia and Ontario in 1917) but not until 1940 did Quebec women earn provincial suffrage.

While the three prairie provinces passed women's suffrage laws in quick succession, getting the right to vote had been the product of years of concerted work by various groups and individuals. In the years after 1910, a real push for the franchise to be extended to women at both the provincial and federal levels was being made by women's groups across Canada. In this matter, Canada was part of a larger movement taking place in England and the United States. (4)

In 1913, some 150 Alberta women organized by the Edmonton Equal Franchise League arranged to meet with Arthur Sifton. The meeting was not a welcome one. Sifton informed the women that he would not extend franchise to women and teased them that he hoped they had finished up the dishes before coming down to the Legislature. (5)

That response did not deter the group. They were back the following year when, on 10 October 1914, a large group of both women and men arrived with a petition at the Legislature. It was signed by more than 12,000 persons and was endorsed by organizations representing more than 25,000 members. The United Farmers of Alberta, trades and labour organizations in Calgary and Edmonton supported the petition which demanded that the word "male" be removed from before the word "person" in the Alberta Elections Act. Sifton was much more welcoming this time. He stated that he expected that women would get the right to vote but he had two major concerns: that extending the franchise would double the cost of holding elections and that the groups behind the petition appeared to represent urban women and there was doubt as to whether rural women actually wanted the vote. (6)

On 27 February 1915, Premier Sifton and his cabinet agreed to meet with a small group of women prior to the opening of the legislature. However, in a well-orchestrated event, women in groups of twos and threes came in and asked to be shown the interior of the legislature. Slowly, without fanfare, they filled the legislative hall and when the politicians arrived, they were greeted by "the largest delegation ever to have confronted the government." (7) The petition was read and numerous speakers took the floor. Premier Sifton made no promises but said it was likely that the issue would be taken up during the next legislative session. He suggested to the group that if they could convince the men in the legislature that they were likely to get more votes as a result of supporting women's suffrage, then the politicians would be more likely to vote in favour it.

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Women's suffrage was brought to the legislature in the spring of 1916. The women's groups and their supporters left nothing to chance. 1 March 1916 (the day of the 2nd reading of the bill) the Alberta Women's Institute opened its 2nd annual convention in Edmonton. Those who were in favour of women's suffrage (both women's groups and their supporters) wanted to ensure they were present to support the bill and to witness history in the making. Said the Lethbridge Herald, "The convention accepted an invitation to attend the Alberta legislature this afternoon, to hear the second reading of the equal franchise measure, when Premier Sifton will address the house." (8)

The bill passed with the 3rd reading on 6 March. "The women of Alberta have the honor of having to their credit the first act passed in the present session of the legislature," said the Lethbridge Herald. "The equal suffrage measure received its third reading at the sitting of the Legislative Assembly this afternoon, and now but, awaits the assent of the Lieutenant-Governor to become a statute." (9) Alberta women finally gained the right to vote on 19 April 1916 when the bill was signed by the lieutenant-governor and became law.

Once the provincial franchise fight was complete, Alberta women turned their eyes to the fight for the federal franchise, a fight that had developed in a piecemeal fashion. In 1917 the Canadian government, worried about the conscription controversy, passed the Wartime Elections Act in which the "federal vote was extended to women in the armed forces, and to female relatives of military men." (10) However, while some women received the right to vote as a result of this Act, it also disenfranchised thousands of other citizens who had been naturalized since 1902. The government's purpose was to deliberately give voting rights to those people (ie pro-British) who would vote for conscription and support of the war.

On 24 May 1918, the federal franchise was extended and "all female 'citizens' aged 21 and over became eligible to vote in federal elections." (11) The following year, July 1919, women became eligible to stand for election to the House of Commons.

However, having the franchise was only part of the battle. Once women could vote, attention now turned to getting them out to vote and encouraging them to use their ballot to help make--as some of them saw it--a better world for women. Commented the Lethbridge Herald,

   Now that the women of Alberta have
   received the full franchise to vote and to
   hold public office, they are taking
   advantage of their new status to press
   upon the provincial government certain
   vital amendments which are necessary to
   the existing laws which will considerably
   improve the present legal status of
   women. (12)

Speakers went across the province and the nation encouraging women's groups to work together in support of necessary legislation that they believed could be changed now that women were voters. Mrs. O.C. Edwards, vice-president of Alberta of the National Council of Women and convenor of the committee on laws for the protection of women and children for the National Council, went to Lethbridge to address the local Council of Women. Reported the Lethbridge Herald,

   Mrs. Edwards, who is particularly well
   versed in these particular laws having
   made a study of them for the last twenty
   years, and is the author of a book on the
   legal status of Canadian women,
   published by the National Council, in an
   interview with the Herald this morning
   told of the need of educating the women
   of the province with their full
   responsibilities as voters, so that they
   would obtain the laws needed for the
   betterment of women and not spend their
   vote in opposing laws that do not pertain
   to them. (13)

The laws they were promoting were, in their opinion, for the welfare of women and children throughout the province and nation. Various speakers were also active in educating women on different voting methods and how to make best use of their votes.

One law that women's groups were working on was the Home Protection Act which would prevent a man from mortgaging or selling the family's property without the woman's consent. At the same time, there were concerns over equal parental rights for women, as well as a variety of other laws that appeared to favour men over women.

Numerous changes were made in the laws in the years after women achieved provincial suffrage, even to acts that one might not consider needed change, such as the Jury Act. In 1921 that Act was revised to permit women to sit on juries. "The Jury Act which is to make allowance for the serving of women on juries," reported the Lethbridge Herald, "is one of the progressive measures of the time. Its intention is to remove the inequalities of women and to give them the same privilege as those enjoyed by men." (14) There was concern that some women would not wish to or could not manage the types of cases that they might face on a jury, so that the Act also stated that women could not be forced to serve on juries and had to declare their willingness to do so.

The desire to change laws meant not only advocacy through voting but also that women could run for office. Once women had the right to vote, they needed to be educated in how to vote. It was also necessary for them to participate fully in the political process to assure that women would get elected.

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At the local and provincial levels, some women were elected to office quite quickly after the changes to the elections law. Women first achieved political office in Alberta in 1917 when Hannah "Annie" Gale was elected alderman in Calgary, the first woman alderman in the British Empire. (15) The first two women elected to the Alberta Legislature also were in 1917. Louise McKinney, the first woman elected to a Legislature anywhere in the British Empire, ran for the Non Partisan League, a left-wing Prohibitionist socialist party. Roberta MacAdams, a member of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, was also elected in the 1917 Alberta general election. She ran as a member-atlarge in overseas voting by Albertans serving in the military. McKinney has the distinction of the first woman declared elected because the overseas voting was not completed until after the in-province election.

While these gains were made almost immediately, women becoming political leaders took almost a century. In 1985 Helen Hunley became Alberta's first woman lieutenant governor while in 2011 Allison Redford became Alberta's first woman premier.

The first federal election in which women were allowed to be candidates was in 1921. Agnes MacPhail became Canada's first woman Member of Parliament in that election. But two decades would pass before an Alberta woman would be elected to the House of Commons. Cora Taylor Casselman, a teacher, was elected for the Liberal party in Edmonton East in 1941. She won the seat in a by-election, following the death of her husband, Frederick Clayton Casselman. (16)

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Acceptance, though, was a struggle. One case that certainly reflects this was the Persons Case. There actually were two Persons cases--one within Alberta and the other at the federal level to determine if Canadian women were persons under the law and could take a seat in the Senate.

The first woman judge in Canada was Alice Jamieson, the widow of Calgary Mayor R.R. Jamieson, who in 1914 became Commissioner of the Juvenile Court. Jamieson was a prominent figure in Calgary and across Alberta, speaking on women's rights. Two years later, on 13 June 1916, Emily Murphy of Edmonton was named the first woman magistrate in the British Empire when she was appointed to sit as police magistrate of the women's court. (17) Alice Jamieson shortly afterwards received a similar appointment in Calgary. (18)

However, almost immediately the right of these women to hold their positions was challenged. When Emily Murphy sentenced a bootlegger, his lawyer challenged the ruling and the authority of Emily Murphy to sit as magistrate. The lawyer claimed that under English common law from 1876, "Women are persons in matters of pains and penalties, but are not persons in matters of right and privilege." (19) According to the lawyer, being a magistrate was a privilege and, therefore, a woman could not be a magistrate. As a result, he claimed that none of her rulings were legal. Magistrate Murphy simply noted the objection and proceeded with the case though this lawyer, and others, continued to bring up the objection. Magistrate Jamieson faced similar criticisms from lawyers in Calgary. Finally, in 1917, the Alberta Supreme Court decided that by "reason and good sense" women were quite obviously persons and were therefore entitled to hold public office. As far as Alberta was concerned, women were persons and it was not an issue.

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But this common sense approach was not held by other people across the country. Throughout the 1920s various individuals and women's groups tried to get a woman appointed to the Senate but they were informed that as the British North America Act stated that only "qualified persons" could be senators, this meant that women were not eligible. Both Prime Ministers Arthur Meighen and William Lyon Mackenzie King promised to change the Act, but neither did, and the situation dragged on. Finally, in 1927, Emily Murphy, having learned that 'five interested persons' could request that the Supreme Court of Canada be required to do an interpretation of any aspect of the BNA Act, assembled what would become the Famous Five (Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Henrietta Edwards, and herself) to challenge the concept of personhood in Canada. While denied by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, England, on 18 October 1929 declared that women were persons and eligible to become Canadian senators.

While this was an important step in women's political rights, it was not the end of it, for not all women had the right to vote provincially in 1916 and federally in 1918. Women of Japanese and Chinese backgrounds (indeed all Japanese and Chinese Canadians) did not receive the right to vote federally until Chinese and Indo-Canadians earned the right to vote in 1947 and Japanese-Canadians in 1948.

First Nations men and some First Nations women in Canada had to wait even longer. Federally, Aboriginal women were granted the right to vote in I960. (20) Then, in 1965, First Nations persons with Treaty Status were given the right to vote in Alberta provincial elections. (21) The first election following that change occurred on 23 May 1967--the year of Canada's Confederation--by which time Alberta as a province was already sixty-five years old and fifty-one years had passed since the first Alberta women received the right to vote provincially.

Not only was the length of time it took for First Nations women to get voting rights in Canada different but how they achieved it was very different from other groups. As Ladner and McCrossan wrote;

   It should be noted that unlike other groups
   that were excluded from the franchise
   (women and some ethnic and religious
   minorities, such as the Chinese and the
   Mennonites), there was no mass lobbying
   effort to obtain the franchise. The
   provincial franchise was extended on an
   ad hoc basis. By and large, when they
   were finally granted the right to vote ...
   Status Indians did not cheer. (22)

Alberta was the second last province to grant franchise to status First Nations persons. The last province was Quebec in 1969.

How and why First Nations received the vote is not a simple story. The action was tied with in their status. Said Ladner and McCrossan,

   For Status Indian women, the history of
   the vote is far more complex. Until 1951,
   they were excluded from participating in
   band council elections. Indian women,
   however, were not universally excluded
   from the federal franchise. Until 1985,
   the status of women was unequivocally
   tied to the husband. If a man chose to
   enfranchise, his wife and children were
   automatically enfranchised. Status Indian
   women who married Non-Status men
   (Indian or not) lost their status, while
   Non-Status women who married status
   men gained status. Thus, as a result of
   marriage, many non-Indian women lost
   their franchise, while many Indian woman
   gained the right to vote alongside other
   women in 1918. (23)

So it becomes almost impossible to make a blanket statement about when all First Nations women received the right to vote, as for some it was in 1916, the same year as when other women in Alberta first achieved provincial suffrage.

Voting rights for women was a long process that continues today with efforts to get more women out to vote and to get more women to run for office.

Belinda Crowson is a museum educator, historian, and writer. She works at the Galt Museum & Archives in Lethbridge and volunteers with the Lethbridge Flistorical Society and the Historical Society of Alberta.

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NOTES

(1) Irene Hill, "Female Suffrage", in W. Stewart Wallace, ed.. The Encyclopedia of Canada, vol. II, Toronto: University Associates in Canada, 1948, 325-27.

(2) Lethbridge Herald, 1 November 1912.

(3) Ibid., 15 March 1918.

(4) It would be impossible within the confines of this article to go into all of the details of the work done for women's suffrage in Alberta. People are encouraged to read Faye Reineberg Holt's article, "Women's Suffrage in Alberta" in the Alberta History, vol. 39, no. 4, 1991, for a more detailed review.

(5) Faye Reineberg Holt, "Women's Suffrage in Alberta" Alberta History, vol. 39, no. 4, 1991, 25-31.

(6) Ibid.

(7) Ibid.

(8) Lethbridge Herald, 1 March 1916.

(9) Ibid., 7 March 1916.

(10) Susan Jackel, "Women's Suffrage", The Canadian Encyclopedia, online.

(11) Ibid.

(12) Lethbridge Herald, 17 March 1916.

(13) Ibid.

(14) Ibid., 21 March 1921.

(15) Kay Sanderson and Elda Hauschildt, 200 Remarkable Alberta Women. Calgary, Alberta: Famous Five Foundation, 1999.

(16) Parliament of Canada web-site: <http://www.lop.parl.gc.ca/ ParIInfo/files/Parliamentarian.aspx?Item=3cb7fl8b-bcfd-4fa5898b-ba8dd9122795&Language=E> 10 January 2016.

(17) Susan Jackel. "Emily Murphy," The Canadian Encyclopedia, online.

(18) "Herstory: An Exhibition Law: Alice Jamieson," <http://library. usask.ca/herstory/jamies.html>

(19) Susan Jackel. "Emily Murphy," The Canadian Encyclopedia, online.

(20) Kiera L. Ladner and Michael McCrossan, "The Electoral Participation of Aboriginal People," Working Paper Series on Electoral Participation and Outreach Practices from Elections Canada.

(21) Ibid.

(22) Ibid.

(23) Ibid.