'Nellie McClung' by Charlotte Gray. With an introduction by John Ralston Saul. Penguin. Part of 'Extraordinary Canadians' series.
Ask most Canadians'Person' in section 24 of the act meant 'women' as well as men to name a famous citizen of their country and they'd probably reply, "Justin Bieber" or "Sidney Crosby" or maybe even "Stephen Harper". Don't think too many of them would mention Nellie McClung.
McClung died in the 1950's. Still she deserves to be remembered and long-time author Charlotte Gray tells us why. Gray has written a good short introduction about McClung. Gray touches on the main points of McClung's life. McClung moved from being a farm girl to being an author, a politician, a temperance advocate, a wife, a mother and a one-time Canadian icon. McClung led the pre-world war one struggle to win women the right to vote. Along with four other women - 'the famous five' as they're now known- she won the right for women to be a senator.
The British North American Act created Canada in 1867. The victory of the five women was that they used the courts to rule that the word 'Person' meant 'women' as well as 'men'.Now women could be appointed to the Senate as well as men.
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