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 FIRST - Woman Legislator in the British Empire - Claresholm, AB Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 50° 01.647 W 113° 34.940
12U E 315048 N 5544877
In front of the Claresholm & District Museum is a low brick plinth containing a pair of plaques dedicated to Louise Crummy McKinney, the first woman in the British Empire to become a member of a legislature.
Waymark Code: WMTEPR
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 11/12/2016
Views: 0
Born in Frankville, Ontario on September 22, 1868, Louise McKinney
died in Claresholm, Alberta July 10, 1931. Attending normal school in Ottawa, though her ambition was to become a doctor, she became a teacher instead, teaching for seven years in Ontario, then in North Dakota. She and her husband homesteaded near Claresholm, Northwest Territories in 1903, two years before Alberta was carved from the Northwest Territories to become a province. It was during her sojourn in North Dakota that she became involved in the Women's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.), later forming a chapter in Claresholm, eventually becoming acting president of the national organization and vice-president of the world organization.
In the Alberta General Election of 1917, she was nominated as a Non-Partisan League (an agrarian movement) candidate, running and winning on a prohibition ticket. With Roberta MacAdams (also elected in Alberta in 1917), she shares the distinction of being the first female elected to a legislature in the British Empire, but she was sworn in first and so took her legislative seat first. After being defeated in 1921, she did not run again.
By all accounts an excellent legislator and public speaker, in public service she fought for laws to aid immigrants, widows, separated women and other parts of society she also fought for stricter liquor control laws. She was chosen as the second person to sign the petition for the judicial appeal (known as the "Persons Case"), after Emily Murphy, which ultimately gave women the right to sit in the Canadian Senate.
From Collections Canada
Text from the plaque:
LOUISE CRUMMY MCKINNEY
THE FIRST WOMAN TO BECOME A MEMBER
OF A LEGISLATURE IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE
ELECTED BY THE CONSTITUENCY OF
CLARESHOLM TO THE LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY OF ALBERTA 7TH JUNE, 1917
BORN AT FRANKVILLE, ONTARIO
22ND SEPTEMBER, 1868
DIED AT CLARESHOLM, ALBERTA 10TH JULY, 1931
HISTORIC SITES AND MONUMENTS BOARD OF CANADA
McKinney, Louise
Louise McKinney, née Crummy, women's rights activist, legislator (b at Frankville, Ont 22 Sept 1868; d at Claresholm, Alta 10 July 1931). McKinney achieved national renown as one of the 5 appellants, the "Famous Five," in the PERSONS CASE. Her ambition was to become a doctor. She became a teacher instead, leaving that work to organize for the WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNIONWOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. In 1903 she helped organize its North-West Territories branch, remaining president of its successor, the Alberta and Saskatchewan Union, for 20 years. A Methodist Sunday school teacher, she urged that TEMPERANCE education be introduced into schools, and she was a strong proponent of women's rights. McKinney brought her convictions to the Alberta legislature, as MLA 1917-21, where she also urged social-welfare measures for immigrants and widows. She, along with Lieutenant Roberta MacAdams of Calgary, was one of the first women to be elected to a Canadian legislature.
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