In Brief

A cheat sheet to suffrage then and now

“Have we not the brains to think? Hands to work? Hearts to feel? And lives to live? Do we not bear our part in citizenship? Do we not help build the Empire? Give us our due!” NELLIE MCCLUNG “I DO NOT WANT TO BE THE ANGEL OF ANY HOME; I WANT FOR MYSELF WHAT I WANT FOR OTHER WOMEN, ABSOLUTE EQUALITY. AND AFTER THAT IS SECURED, THEN MEN AND WOMEN CAN TAKE TURNS AT BEING ANGELS.” AGNES MACPHAIL, FIRST WOMAN MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT IN CANADA, ELECTED IN 1921 “WE MUST OPEN THE DOORS AND WE MUST SEE TO IT THAT THEY REMAIN OPEN, SO THAT OTHERS CAN PASS THROUGH.” ROSEMARY BROWN, FIRST BLACK WOMAN IN CANADA TO BE ELECTED TO A PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE (MLA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, ELECTED 1972) “The right to vote is one of the great privileges of democratic society, for after all it is you the people, not the Gallup poll, who determine into whose hands the guidance of public affairs may best be entrusted.” JOHN G. DIEFENBAKER, FORMER PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA, WHO REMOVED THE REQUIREMENT FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TO GIVE UP THEIR INDIAN STATUS IN ORDER TO VOTE, JUNE 15, 1962