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Agnes Campbell Macphail was the first women to be elected to Canada's House of Commons and one of the first two women elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. She was born in Proton Township, Grey County, Ontario, on March 24, 1890.
She was elected to the House of Commons in 1921 as a member of the Progressive Party for the riding of Grey Southeast and was re-elected as a Progressive in the elections of 1925, 1926, and 1930. In 1935 she elected as a United Farmers of Ontario-Labour MP for Grey-Bruce before being defeated in 1940.
As a member of the United Farmers of Ontario and its women's section, United Farm Women of Ontario, she was a strong voice for rural issues. Another passion was penal reform and her efforts led to the formation, in 1936, of a Royal Commission to investigate Canada's prisons, (the Archambault Commission). Her concern for the plight of women in the criminal justice system led her to found the Elizabeth Fry Society of Canada.
A radical member of the Progressive Party, she joined the splinter Ginger Group that later lead to the formation of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). She became the first president of the Ontario CCF when it was founded in 1932. Causes she championed included pensions for seniors and workers' rights. MacPhail was the first Canadian woman delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva, where she was an active member of the Disarmament Committee. Although a strong pacifist, she did vote for Canada to enter the Second World War.
In 1943, Macphail was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the Ontario CCF and was the first woman sworn in as an Ontario MPP. Although defeated in 1945, she was re-elected in 1948. She was responsible for Ontario's first equal pay legislation, passed in 1951. Following her defeat in the 1951 election, she was barely able to support herself through journalism, public speaking and organizing for the Ontario CCF. She died on February 15, 1954, just before she was to have been offered an appointment to the Senate.