Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/777

 WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN BRITISH COLONIES 761 whole Province, circulating a monster petition for the full Provincial franchise. A group of women in Toronto organized an Anti-Suffrage Association and called a public meeting at which the suffragists were denounced for "pressing their claims when all the thought and effort of the Government should be given to the demands of the war." Up to ^17 neither the Liberal nor Conservative party had shown the leastTavor to woman suf- frage but now the former, which was out of power, made it a plank of its platform and its leader, N. W. Rowell, on February 20 at the opening of Parliament moved an amendment to the speech from the throne providing for the full enfranchisement of women in Ontario. It was declared out of order by Premier Hearst. A few days later J. W. Johnson of Belleville, a private member, introduced a bill for woman suffrage. On February 27 this bill was indorsed for the Conservative Government by Premier Hearst, who said: "Having taken our women into partnership with us in our tremendous task I ask, 'Can we justly deny them a share in the government of the country, the right to have a say about the making of the laws they have been so heroically trying to defend?' My answer is, 'I think not.' ' Thus without discussion this act of justice for which women had petitioned since 1903 was granted by a single word. Mr. Rowell and the Liberals united with the Conservatives and the bill was passed Feb. 27, 1917. Although passed by a Union Government it was largely due to the incessant efforts of the Liberal members in the past. While in Quebec and a few of the small Provinces the suffrage ^till withheld from women it now so largely prevailed that their national enfranchisement by the Dominion Parliament seemed the next inevitable step. During 1917 Sir Robert Bordcn made a visit to England and the war front. Although it was estimated that in some of the Provinces one man in every fourteen had enlisted, he returned fully convinced that "conscription" would be necessary and this would require a referendum to the voters. Quebec would vote solidly against it. as would certain elements in the other Provinces. A Fusion party was formed in the Parliament and under tremendous pressure a War Time Election Act was passed in September. It disfranchised during