Suffage opposition

YOU MUSTN’T ASK TO VOTE

You may be our close companion
Share our troubles, ease our pain,
You may bear the servant’s burden
(But without the servant’s gain;)
You may scrub and cook and iron
Sew the buttons on our coat,
But as men we must protect you—
You are far too frail to vote.

You may toil behind our counters,
In our factories you may slave
You are welcome in the sweatshop
From the cradle to the grave.
If you err, altho’ a woman
You may dangle by the throat
But our chivalry is outraged
If you soil your hands to vote.
L. Case Russell, The Globe , Toronto, 28 September 1912

I am utterly opposed to women’s suffrage in every shape and form. I think too much of women to have her entangled in the mesh of politics. She would be stooping from the pedestal on which she has sat for centuries.
Premier Roblin, Canadian Annual Review , 1912.

"I believe woman suffrage would be a retrograde movement, that it would break up the home, and that it would throw the children into the arms of the servant girl."
Sir Rodmond P. Roblin, The Manitoba Free Press ,28 June 1914

"I believe that woman suffrage would be a retrograde movement, that it will break up the home. . . The majority of women are emotional and very often guided by misdirected enthusiasms, and if possessed of the franchise would be a menace rather than an aid."
Sir Rodmond Roblin

"Nice women don't want the vote."
Sir Rodmond Roblin

"When I come home at night, I don't want a hyena in petticoats talking politics at me. I want a sweet, gentle creature to bring me my slippers."
Sir Rodmond Roblin

"A great number of these young men are students, who, in the college and universities, have acquired political knowledge... [They] frequent the clubs and assemblies where political questions are discussed. But where and how will girls of the same age acquire political knowledge? Will they be advised to attend clubs and public meetings, to go to places where they would see and hear nothing good, where their modesty, delicacy of feelings and moral qualities would be more or less affected? Knowing what I know, if I had girls of that age, I would certainly forbid them going to these places, or these meetings."
Senator David, Hansard, 1922

"A great number of these young men are students, who, in the college and universities, have acquired political knowledge... [They] frequent the clubs and assemblies where political questions are discussed. But where and how will girls of the same age acquire political knowledge? Will they be advised to attend clubs and public meetings, to go to places where they would see and hear nothing good, where their modesty, delicacy of feelings and moral qualities would be more or less affected? Knowing what I know, if I had girls of that age, I would certainly forbid them going to these places, or these meetings."
Senator David, Hansard, 1922