Recently, while touring the House of Commons in Ottawa, the Georgian Bay Explorer came across a bronze bust of Agnes MacPhail commemorating her election as the first woman member of Parliament. Wondering where else the grand lady of Proton Township might be found, he discovered that there are at least three schools named after Agnes – one in Flesherton, another in Hamilton and a third in Scarborough. Today, a plaque in the township’s Centennial Park tells the story of a Canadian who “led the way.”
Agnes Campbell MacPhail was born and raised near Hopeville in Proton
Township. The daughter of Dugald and Henrietta MacPhail, she went to S. S. #4 Proton until she was twelve and the family moved to Ceylon. After secondary school in Owen Sound, Agnes took teacher training at Stratford Normal School and then taught in small rural schools in southern Grey County.
Agnes’s father was an auctioneer with a gift for gab. His daughter must have inherited his wit and eloquence since she was tapped by the United Farmers of Ontario to run as a federal candidate for Parliament. During the campaign that followed, Agnes turned into an electrifying stump speaker, paving her way with her voice to represent Grey South as Canada’s first women to be elected to parliament.
A pioneer in prison reform and welfare measures, Agnes was a champion of women and a friend of farmers. A tireless worker for basic democratic rights such as the family allowance, pensions for the blind, handicapped and senior citizens, she was also sent as a delegate to the League of Nations in 1929 – the first woman to be given such a responsibility and honour.
Originally aired April 7 2016
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