Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

Votes for Women

Jan 30, 2016

Last week marked the hundredth anniversary of women beginning to get the vote in Canada. At least at the provincial and federal level. I think they had the vote at different times and different places at the municipal and school board level but it is pretty complicated. For that matter, the whole issue is pretty complicated, as Chris Moore makes clear in his thorough blog posts on the subject.

Of course, women's suffrage did not mean that everyone had the vote in Canada. Canadians of Asian background -- Chinese, Japanese, South Asian -- did not win the vote until after World War Two; the Inuit not until 1950; and First Nations not until 1960.

Full democracy was a long time coming.

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