Agnes Macphail
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Agnes Campbell Macphail (March 24, 1890 — February 15, 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.
Macphail was born to Dougald McPhail and Henrietta Campbell in Proton Township in Grey County, Ontario, on March 24, 1890.
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 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 for the Grey Southeast riding in 1921, becoming with Rae Luckock the first female MPs in House of Commons. Macphail was reelected in the elections of 1925, 1926, and 1930.
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 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 lead to the formation of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. She became the first president of the Ontario CCF when it was founded in 1932. 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 1940, she was defeated, later writing agricultural columns for the Globe and Mail.
In 1943, 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 became the first woman sworn in as an Ontario MPP. Although defeated in 1945, she was elected again in 1948. 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 died February 15, 1954 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.
Agnes Macphail is the great-grandmother of British Columbia politician Joy MacPhail.
