Born: 22 September 1868, Canada
Died: 10 July 1931
Country most active: Canada
Also known as: Mrs. James McKinney, Louise Crummy
Canadian politician, temperance advocate, and women’s rights activist Louise McKinney was the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and the first woman to serve in a legislature in the British Empire, from 1917 to 1921. She was also one of the so-called “Famous Five,” a group of women who successfully sued to have women recognized as people in Canada.
As a young woman, McKinney wanted to become a doctor, but was thwarted by gender barriers and became a teacher instead. While teaching in North Dakota in the United States, she became involved with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union as a local organizer, travelling the state to speak on the dangers of alcohol and even later naming her son after WCTU founder Frances Willard. She was elected North Dakota’s District President in 1898, representing the region at the National Convention in 1899. Returning to Canada in 1903, she began establishing a local WCTU branch and recruited other activists to form a larger association. She went on to serve as president of the Alberta branch of the Dominion WCTU and vice-president of the national Dominion WCTU from 1908 to 1930, when she was elected president of the national organization. In this capacity, she organized the 1931 World Convention that took place in Toronto, where she was elected vice-president of the World WCTU.
In the 1917 general election, the first in which women were allowed to vote, McKinney ran for the Alberta Legislature to represent her district, defeating the incumbent and becoming the first woman elected to a legislature in the British Empire. Roberta MacAdams also won a seat in this election, but she was elected to one of the two seats Alberta reserved for serving military personnel during World War I (she was a dietician and lieutenant in the Canadian Army Medical Corps), and those votes were counted later than the standard election votes. MacAdams, however, was the first to introduce and pass a piece of legislation.
While much of her focus was on working to outlaw alcohol, she also worked with Henrietta Muir Edwards to draft and introduce a motion to ensure widows would receive part of their husbands’ estates, which became known as the Dower Act after it passed.
McKinney ran for re-election once, in 1921, but was defeated. Although she never ran for political office again, she remained active in politics, particularly with the WCTU.
Officially known as Edwards v Canada (AG), the Persons Case was brought by McKinney, Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy and Nellie McClung and challenged whether women were eligible to serve in the federal Senate, as the wording of the law in question referred to “persons” rather than “men.” In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled against the women, who appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 1929. A holdover from when Canada was a British colony, the U.K.’s Privy Council outranked the Supreme Court until the mid-20th century, and overturned the ruling. The first woman, Cairine Wilson, was appointed to the Senate the following year.
While perhaps not as ardent a eugenicist as other members of the Famous Five, McKinney advocated for the creation of institutions to care for developmentally impaired people and to prevent them reproducing. She also argued for stricter immigration laws – ironic, given that her parents had emigrated from Ireland.
The Canadian government recognized McKinney as a Person of National Historic Significance in 1939. The Persons Case was officially named a National Historic Event in 1997. Two identical monuments to the Famous Five, called Women are Persons!, were erected in 2000 in Calgary, Alberta and near the Senate of Canada Building in 2000 and were later featured on $50 banknotes. The Senate voted in 2009 to name the women Canada’s first “honorary senators.”