Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/772

 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE Manitoba had been the first to give women the suffrage those of Saskatchewan would be the first to have a chance to use it. At an early and full meeting of the Legislature a number of members spoke in favor of it and it passed practically without opposition. In 1919 Mrs. M. O. Ramsden was elected to the Legislature. In 1902 a petition for woman suffrage was presented to the Government in JBritish Columbia and refused. Another effort was made in 1903 but the subject was not brought before the Legislature until 1906, when it defeated a bill. In 1908 it took away the Municipal franchise from women householders. The women's clubs in Victoria secured 1,000 names in three days pro- testing against this action. Mr. Naden, Liberal member from Greenwood, introduced a bill restoring it, supported by his party, but it was defeated. The Council of Women, at its November meeting, adopted a resolution "to do all in its power to promote the woman suffrage cause." It was the first Local Council in Canada to endorse this cause and later held two public meetings in its interest. In 1910 extensive work was done to regain the Municipal franchise. In 191 1 nine important amendments to the very reprehensible laws concerning women and children were submitted to the Legislature by the Council through the Attorney General and one was passed. In the autumn the Political Equality Club was re-organized in Victoria, Mrs. Gordon Grant, president, and in December at a Provincial Conference in Vancouver she assisted in organizing one there ; Mrs. Lashley Hall, president later Mrs. C. Townley and Miss Lily Laverock, secretary. The two societies organized a large deputation to wait upon the Attorney General and solicit better property laws for women, equal guardianship of children for mothers, the right taken away from fathers to dispose of their guardianship by will and other equally needed laws. They also memorialized the Legislature for the full Provincial suffrage for women. On Feb. 15, 1913, fifty women in the Province presented a petition of 10,000 names to the Premier, asking that suffrage on equal terms with men be given to women and on the I9th he answered that as a matter of Government policy it was impossible. The agitation increased and continued until the full enfran- chisement of women in the three great Provinces to the east