Macphail, Agnes Campbell

Macphail, Agnes Campbell (məkfāl`), 1890–1954, Canadian legislator, b. Ontario. She was elected (1921) to the Canadian House of Commons as a representative of the United Farmers of Ontario and Labor, the first woman in Canada to enter Parliament; she served until her defeat in 1940. She later became a member of the Ontario legislature (1943–45; 1948–51). On the formation (1933) of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, she became a leading member of this party.

Bibliography

See biography by M. Stewart and D. French (1959).

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Macphail, Agnes Campbell

(born March 24, 1890, Grey county, Ont., Can.—died Feb. 13, 1954, Toronto) Canadian politician. Originally a schoolteacher, she entered politics to represent the farmers in her region. In 1921, the first year women could vote in national elections in Canada, she was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as its first female member; she served until 1940. She advocated prison reform and women's rights as well as a protective tariff. She was the first female Canadian delegate to the League of Nations. Elected to the Ontario legislature (1943–45, 1948–51), she sponsored the province's first equal-pay legislation.