Agnes MacPhail and the Politics of Equality

James G. Snell is a professor of History at the University of Guelph,
author of In the Shadow of the Law: Divorce in Canada, 1900-1939, and
co-author of The Supreme Court of Canada: History of the Institution.

MacpPhail, an important figure in twentieth-century Canadian political
history, has lacked a thoughtful, well-researched biography. This study
by Crowley is therefore particularly welcome.

MacPhail is important not so much for any substantial legislative
accomplishments, or for any political power that she wielded. Rather,
she is important for the elements of Canadian political history that she
represents. She was the first woman elected to sit in the House of
Commons, and she sat in that house for longer than any other woman to
date. In the 1920s and 1930s, that was no mean feat. What was more, she
did it without the help of any major party. Macphail was always on the
political fringe, in partisan terms. A member of the United Farmers of
Ontario, of the Progressives, and of the “Ginger Group,” she won
electoral victory in Grey County, Ontario, largely because of her own
hard work and her personality, and without the advantages of the
“coattails” of the popular parties.

When MacPhail was finally defeated federally in 1940, after almost 19
years in Ottawa, she was soon elected to the Ontario legislature, where
she sat for a further eight years as a member of the ccf party.

MacPhail was no shrinking violet. She fought hard for the political
causes in which she believed. She confronted powerful political and
economic interests. And she made her mark in the fact of those fights,
rather than in any specific victory that she won. This new study of her
struggles is very welcome.