Nellie McClung
At the beginning of the twentieth century, women's suffrage was not a popular cause in Canada. Men and women were frightened that women's rights would lead to the breakdown of home and family.  Manitoba Premier Rodmond Roblin strongly opposed giving women the right to vote, and suggested "nice" women did not want the vote.  To this, Nellie responded, "By nice women...you probably mean selfish women who have no more thought for the underprivileged, overworked women than a pussycat in a sunny window for the starving kitten in the street. Now in that sense I am not a nice woman for I do care."  

To rally public support, the Political Equality League held a Mock Parliament on January 28, 1914. It was a farcical sketch designed to ridicule the arguments of those who opposed granting women the right to vote. By turning the tables - women occupied all of the seats in the legislature and men brought a petition for the vote - the women hoped to underscore the absurdity of the arguments of those who opposed the enfranchisement of women. Members of the audience were treated to bombastic and long winded speeches and constant heckling as the male petitioners were dismissed on the grounds that "beautiful and cultured men" would be corrupted by their participation in politics.  A male delegation presented its case for male suffrage, and then "Premier" Nellie McClung rose to speak. She complimented the men on their splendid gentlemanly appearance, then she launched into her satiric attack: "Oh no, man is made for something higher and better than voting...Politics unsettles men, and unsettled men mean unsettled bills, broken furniture, broken vows, and divorce!"

Needless to say, her tactics worked.  The 1915 election saw the defeat of Roblin's government and, on January 29, 1916, Manitoba became the first Canadian province to give women the vote.

In 1921 she was elected as a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta where she fought for mother's allowances, public health nursing, free medical and dental care for children, liberalised birth control, divorce laws, and improved property rights for married women.  Nellie managed to convince others of the cause with her own formidable tools:  reasonable discussion, personal charm and irrepressible humour (not to mention some pretty interesting hats).

In 1927, she joined forces with Emily Murphy, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, and Henrietta Edwards (known as the "Famous Five") to launch "The Person's Case." At that time, although women had the right to vote, there were not any women serving in the Senate on the grounds that the British North America Act stated that one must be a "person" to do so.  In 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that when the BNA Act was written in 1867, the term "person" was only meant to include men.  The Famous Five decided to appeal the decision to the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council, at the time, the highest court for Canadian constitutional interpretation.  

The persistence of these five women paid off.  On October 18, 1929, Lord Sankey, Lord Chancellor of the Privy Council, announced the decision that "women are eligible to be summoned and may become Members of the Senate of Canada." The battle was won and an important milestone in women’s formal rights and responsibilities, with respect to public affairs, was reached.  Women were, indeed, persons under the law.