[Applause] [Music] in Canada's early day voting was considered a privilege not a right affluent men could vote women who owned property could vote most didn't after Confederation in 1867 all women were excluded it was the law may it be proclaimed and decreed that no woman shall have the right to vote at any election in the 1880s and '90s many Saw women's suffrage contrary to biblical teachings a member in the Ontario legislature ATT act to propose suffrage measure the man was not made for the woman but the woman for the man thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee he quoted scripture in a speech delivered to the Ontario legislature in 1893 A Woman's Place was in submission to [Music] man every year between 1905 and 1916 a bill to give women the vote was introduced in the Ontario legislature it was greeted with laughter and Scorn the premier of Ontario James Whitney in 1911 said women's suffrage is a matter of evolution and evolution is only a working out of God's laws for this reason we must not attempt to hurry it on but the women's suffrage movement was well underway and growing the Prairies were a hot bed for such Activity one of the women who led the movement was Nelly mclan as a popular author she wrote about and celebrated Canada's rural West she was middle class a teacher and a temperence leader January 1914 mlang met with the conservative premier of Manitoba Rodman Roblin to demand women's suffrage Roblin said it would break up the home and throw children into the arms of servant girls the majority of women he said are emotional and if given the franchise would be a menace rather than an [Music] aid mclung responded by staging a satirical play to a soldout audience the roles of men and women were reversed the Press loved it its success Consolidated support for the women's cause overnight suffrage had become mainstream [Music] 1915 Manitoba an overwhelming win for the Liberals a year later legislation giving women the same voting rights as men was passed it was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm Manitoba women were the first to vote in that same year the other Prairie Provinces followed women get the vote in saskat and Alberta mclung had once told Alberta legislators that women's suffrage was in the tide it now seemed to be sweeping across the country the following year in 1917 the suffrage movement triumphs in Ontario and British Columbia women could now vote in five provincial elections but they were excluded from voting in federal elections pressure for change at the federal level was mouning but a much more pressing political issue faced the government at the time [Music] conscription the Great War had dragged on for 3 [Music] years Canadian losses at the front were incomprehensible with casualties on a scale never seen before soldiers and politicians soon realized there would be no quick end and men's stop volunteering for conservative prime minister Robert bordon there was only one solution and on August 29th 1917 the military service act became law it allowed bordon to conscript men across the country it caused controversy with an election looming bordon was determined to win two new laws were introduced both a transparent effort to increase the number of electors who would vote for boron's government these laws inadvertently benefited women the vote was given to serving military personnel otherwise not qualified this included military nurses they became the first Canadian women to get the federal vote female citizens over the age of 21 who were the wife mother sister or daughter of someone serving a uniform were also given the vote not all women were [Music] included women's contribution to the war effort was essential RB Bennett a young conservative Member of Parliament from Calgary remarked that though he had not been favorably disposed toward votes for women in pre-war years women's heroic exertions in the National crisis had won him incompletely to their cause why shouldn't we have a vote when woman at the polls told a reporter haven't we got our husbands and Sons at the front the paper reported most women assisted the boys at the front in a very tangible Way by casting a vote for boron's government December 17th 1917 bordon is reelected in his victory speech he thanks women's wonderful devotion 3 months later his government introduces a bill to provide the vote for all women uniform suffrage for women across Canada the provinces would only determine the qualifications for men when paper reported the proposed bill was eminently fair and just and that bordon though a late recruit to the suffrage cause was an out andout [Music] one the bill was not welcomed by all in the House of Commons Quebec liberals attacked the bill I say the Holy Scripture theology feminine psychology all seem to indicate that the place of women in this world is not amid The Strife of the political Arena but in her home said one Member of Parliament from Quebec to keep up the birth rate of Canada we must keep our women within their sphere said another bordon compromised he amended his own bill women electors would have to meet the same requirements as men in the provinces where they live on May 24th 1918 the bill received Royal [Applause] [Music] Ascent the Dominion elections Act of 1920 brought further advancements women over the age of 21 could vote in federal elections regardless whether they had the right to vote in provincial elections not all women were included immigrants of Asian origin and their descendants certain religious groups innuit and Aboriginal peoples were excluded it was a struggle never a fight wrote Canada's first female senator it wasn't until 1960 that this simple Act of voting once a privilege finally became a right for all [Music] [Applause] women