Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Agnes Macphail Agnes Campbell Macphail was the first women to be elected to Canada's House of Commons. She was born in Proton Township, Grey County, Ontario, on March 24th, 1890. She was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1921 with the Progressive Party of Canada for the county of Grey South East then Grey Bruce. As a member of the United Farm Women of Ontario, she was a strong voice for rural issues. She was active in penal system reform and her efforts contributed to the formation of a 1936 Royal Commission to scrutinize the penal system. A radical member of the party she joined the splinter Ginger Group that later lead to the formation of the CCF. She sat as a member of the CCF party, but was always loosely linked to them. During her time in parliament she was pushed for penal reform and an improvement of women's rights. She was also a strong pacifist, but she did vote for Canada to enter the Second World War. In the 1951 election she lost her bid for reelection and turned to jounralism and public speaking. She died on February 15, 1954, just before she was to be appointed to the Senate. External links http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/2/12/h12-264-e.html This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.