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Agnes Campbell Macphail
“Do not rely completely on any other human being, however dear. We meet all life’s greatest tests alone” –Agnes Macphail Agnes Campbell Macphail was born to Dougald Macphail and Henrietta Campbell on March 24, 1890, in Proton Township in Grey County, Ontario. She lived in Proton until the age of 12 at which point her family moved to a farm in Artemesia. Macphail attended teachers college in Stratford, Ontario after which she taught in schools throughout southwest Ontario. Although she began her career as a county school teacher, her real interest was agricultural problems. While she was working in Sharon, she became a member and active spokesperson for the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) and the United Farm Women of Ontario.. Her desire to represent the farmers in her region was what stemmed her political career. On top of all of this she was also a columnist for the Farmer’s Sun. Macphail eventually returned to Grey County where she was elected to represent the United Farmers of Ontario (Progressive Party) for the Grey Southeast riding on December 6 1921. Women had just gained the right to vote in 1918, and the right to run for parliament a year later. The 1921 election was the first to include female candidates. Macphail was re-elected in the 1925, 1926, and 1930 federal elections. In 1933, she became the first president of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). In 1935, she was again elected, but this time as a UFO-labour MP for the Grey Bruce riding.
Macphail was a strong advocate for rural issues and farmer’s cooperatives. Another important issue for her was penal reform and her efforts led to the formation of the investigative
After 19 years as a parliament member, she was defeated on March 24, 1940. In the 1943 provincial election, Macphail was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the Ontario CCF representing the suburban Toronto riding of York East. Although she was defeated in the 1945 provincial election, she was again elected in 1948. She was responsible for Ontario’s first equal pay legislation in 1951, however she could no longer continue her efforts as she was defeated in subsequent elections. After her electoral defeat she supported herself by journalism, public speaking and organizing for the Ontario CCF. She suffered from lack of money and poor health. Agnes lived in Leaside and attended Don Mills United Church , where she also taught Sunday school.
Macphail never married, and after suffering various ailments throughout her life, including a thyroid
A plaque honoring her memory is erected in the Proton Township Centennial Park in Hopeville along with a bronze bust near the Speaker’s Chambers in the House of Commons, Ottawa. The bronze bust of Agnes Macphail was created by a young Austrian refugee called Felix de Weldon, who later became a famous sculptor. A ceremony to unveil the bust was hold on March 8, 1955.
Some Interesting Facts About Agnes Macphail:
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Agnes Macphail was one of the most influential women of her time. From the time she became a young woman to the time she died, she fought for various causes that she strongly believed in, influencing everyone around her. Being born and raised in Grey County, it is no surprise that she was and still is one of the most recognized women in the area.
Archambault
Commission in 1936. Macphails’s concern for women in the penal system led her to found the Elizabeth Fry Society of Canada, a group working with and for women in the justice system. Being a dedicated advocate of human rights, Macphail also fought for old-age pensions, and workers’ rights
imbalance, Agnes Macphail died of a heart attack in Toronto on February 13th, 1954 at the age of sixty-three. At her funeral, her minister eulogized: “Her life might have been much easier. But this was the path she chose—the craggy course.” She was buried in the family plot with her parents and her sister Gertha in the McNeil Cemetary, in Priceville, during one of the worst winter storms of the year.
Three Ontario schools have been named in Agnes’ honor: Macphail Memorial Elementary School in Flesherton, a Girls vocational school in Hamilton, and the Agnes Macphail Public School in Scarborough. There is also a prestigious public speaking contest held in her name annually in East York, Toronto, Ontario. On June 24th, 2006, a cairn commemorating Agnes Macphail’s life was unveiled in the community of Hopeville, in Grey County Ontario. There are also signs at the boundaries of the Grey Southeast riding that Miss Macphail represented from 1921 to 1940.
