Suffrage support

"My brother has a vote, my steward has a vote, my coachman has a vote and at least fifty of my servants have votevoted; but I have no vote."

Lady of means speaking to Sir John A. Macdonald in England in 1884

"I am strongly convinced . . . of the justice of giving women otherwise qualified the suffrage. I am strongly of that opinion, and have been for a good many years, and I had hoped that Canada would have the honor of first placing women in the position that she is certain eventually, after centuries of oppression, to obtain. It is merely a question of time all over the civilized world. . . I had hoped that we in Canada would have had the great honor of leading in the cause of securing the complete emancipation of women, of completely establishing her equality as a human being and a member of society with man. I say it is a mere matter of time."
Sir John A.  Macdonald, Commons Debates, 27 April 1885, p.  1388.

"It is equal rights which women are seeking, equal rights with men, equal rights in lines of work, equal rights in the protection of the law and equal rights in citizenship."
Freyja, [Finnish newspaper; Freyja means woman] Selkirk, Manitoba. 1898

"Let those who oppose take warning
And keep this motto in sight
No question is ever settled
Until it is settled right."
Victoria Daily Colonist, 6 November 1909

"Laws concerning dower, property, inheritance, the guardianship of children, the municipal franchise, education, prohibition and many other matters were under provincial control."
Sara Carter, Ours By Every Law of Right and Justice Women and the Vote in the Prairie Provinces

"Without doubt the democracy of the twentieth century demands the wisdom, sympathy and insight of woman for its full development, and Canadian women cannot set themselves too soon to the solution of the problems now affecting the economic and social well-being of the Dominion. Most men are free to confess that they have made more or less of a botch of trying to run the government by themselves. We look for a new moral impetus, a saner outlook and wider human sympathy to enter into the settlement of our public questions with the advent of women into public affairs."
The Grain Grower’s Guide, Winnipeg, 4 February 1914

"We firmly believe that if the women of these warring countries had possessed the power of the ballot, this awful slaughter of precious life [World War I] would never have clotted the twentieth-century civilization."
Western Methodist Recorder, February 1915

"No woman, idiot or criminal shall vote."
Nellie McClung, In Times Like These, 1915
[The Manitoba Elections Act passed in 1913 stated that "Every person shall be entitled to vote at the elections . . . if such person (a) is of the male sex." Patients in lunatic asylums and criminals were not allowed to vote.]

"When…about 30% of the women of Canada are wage earners, it seems rather foolish to talk about women being protected from the battle of life. We are human, just like men. In reason and intellect, we claim neither superiority nor inferiority, hence our reasons for wanting the vote are just the same as men’s."
Mrs. Elizabeth Tuckey, Morning Albertan , Calgary, 1 March 1915.

"Men alone are not capable of making laws for men and women. Laws are made from man’s standpoint. There is a law in this province whereby a man can sell all he has without the knowledge or consent of his wife, and can skip out, leaving her and her children without anything. There is a law by which a man can will away all his property and leave his wife nothing. There is a law by which a father is heir to his child’s property. Children have only one legal guardian, only one parent in the eyes of the law, and that parent is the father. Such laws as these are on the statute books, yet people will say that women should trust to man’s chivalry."
Nellie McClung, newspaper report, 20 May 1915 

“Now you forget all this nonsense about women voting,” Premier Roblin [of Manitoba] went on in his suavest tones. “You’re a fine, smart woman, I can see that. And take it from me, nice women don’t want the vote.” His voice dripped fatness.
“By nice women,” I said, “you probably mean selfish women who have no more thought for the underpaid, overworked women than a pussycat in a sunny window has for the starving kitten in the street. Now in that sense I am not a nice woman, for I do care. I care about those factory women, working in ill-smelling holes, and we intend to do something about it, and when I say ‘we’ I’m talking for a great many women, of whom you will hear more as the days go on.”
Nellie McClung, The Stream Runs Fast , 1945

"Except judges, Chinese, Indians, criminals, lunatics and persons who for corrupt practices have temporarily forfeited their right to vote, every person, whether male or female, who is a British subject by birth or naturalization, of the full age of twenty-one years, and who has resided in Saskatchewan for twelve months . . . is entitled to vote."
Saskatchewan Election Act, 1916

[Ironically this cartoon shows an Indigenous woman representing BC welcoming a newly enfranchised settler woman to full political citizenship even though Indigenous women could not vote.]

"[On the 5 April 1917] The franchise was extended to the majority of settler women in British Columbia. But another thirty-two years would elapse before the provincial government allowed First Nations, Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian Canadian women and men to vote."
Laura Campbell, A Great Revolutionary Wave Women and the Vote in British Columbia

[When did women in BC get the vote?
5 April 1917 except for:
Chinese Canadians from 1874-1947
First Nations 1874-1951
Japanese Canadians 1895-1949
South Asians 1907-1949]

Ladder of opportunities available to women, New York Times Current History, October 1920
[Slavery, house drudgery, shop work, clerks-agents-maids, teachers -caretakers, bookkeeping-stenography, nurse-governess, private secretary, arts-crafts-science, business affairs, school affairs, church & charities, war workers, public office, government office, law-medicine, EQUAL SUFFRAGE, notary public, wage equality, political appointments, positions of trust, highest elective offices, executive, legislative, senate-congress-governorship, presidency.]

"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

Canadian Citizenship Act and repeal of Chinese Immigration Act, 1 January 1947
Changes to federal legislation allow Chinese and South Asian Canadians to vote.

First Nations Can Now Vote in Federal Elections, 1 July 1960
First Nations peoples receive the right to vote in federal elections while retaining their status and treaty rights.

Women in National Parliaments at end of women's suffrage:
http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm

"To have part of life can never be enough, one must have all. That is what I want for women."
Agnes Macphail

"What women want is not deference but equality. The old fashioned chivalry [flowers] is all hollow. It means nothing except that men think women inferior."
Agnes Macphail

"Why has Canada but one woman M.P., but one Senatoress? Why do the churches still refuse to ordain female priests and parsons, the courts to provide female judges only for juveniles? Why during the depression have married women been thrown ruthlessly out of jobs to make way for unemployed men? Why have single women to fight against such severe odds to gain the highest executive positions where only those of the most outstanding ability and endurance can succeed? And why do all women in business consistently receive less recompense than men for doing precisely the same work, for accepting precisely the same responsibilities? On what other grounds than a widespread belief that women are inferior; that, in fact, this is a man's world? "
Benge Atlee, Should Women Be Men?, Maclean's Magazine, 15 April 1934