Organizations

The Political Equality League was founded in 1912 by a number of progressive Manitobans, including prominent suffragists Nellie McClung, Winona Flett, E. Cora Hind, Dr. Emilia Yoemans, and Francis Marion Beynon and her sister Lillian Beynon Thomas. The initial goal of the organization was women’s suffrage, but it soon developed a full program of political reforms including direct legislation, tariff, prohibition of alcohol, labour law reform, and the appointment of more factory inspectors, both male and female. To get its message across to the people of Manitoba the League relied on the distribution of pamphlets, petition campaigns and peaceful demonstrations. In addition, it organized an active speakers bureau. Led by Thomas and McClung, these speakers travelled to theatres and community halls across the province bearing the messages of suffrage and political reform to all who would listen. In 1913, after presenting a petition bearing the signatures of twenty thousand men, the League won the support of the provincial Liberal Party, which agreed to endorse the vote for women. Members of the Political Equality League campaigned for the Liberal Party in the 1914 election, but the Conservative Party was returned at the polls. In 1915, the Conservative government collapsed and the Liberal Party, under T.C. Norris, came into power. In August of that year, Norris announced that suffrage legislation would be introduced as soon as he was presented with a petition signed by at least twenty thousand supporters of suffrage. That December a delegation of sixty men and women formally presented Premier Norris with two petitions with a combined total of over forty thousand names. By January 1916, the legislation had passed, making Manitoba the first province to grant full suffrage rights to all women. Having accomplished its primary goal, The Political Equality League soon passed from the scene.