Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/780

 764 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE if married to an enemy alien. This Act superseded the War Time Election Act. 1 The following year this Parliament passed an Act enabling a wife to retain her nationality. 2 In New Brunswick in 1908, led by Mrs. Fiske, Mrs. Hathaway and Miss Peters, the suffragists memorialized the Legislature to extend the full suffrage to women but a bill for this purpose was defeated. In 1909 a bill to give it to taxpaying widows and spinsters passed the Upper House and after much discussion in the Lower House was postponed. In 1915 married women were included in the Municipal franchise possessed by widows and spinsters. These efforts were continued from year to year and finally after the Dominion franchise had been conferred, the Elections Act was amended by the Legislative Assembly Qn April 17, 1919, to confer complete universal suffrage on women. On May 20, 1919, the Council of Yukon Territory amended its Election Law to read: "In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires, words importing the masculine gender include females and the words Voter' and 'elector' include both men and women . . . and under it women shall have the same rights and privileges as men." Bills to give the full suffrage to women in Nova^Scotifl were many times defeated. In 1916, when all the western provinces were enfranchising their women, the Lower House of the Legis- lature passed a bill for it and later rescinded it on the excuse that it was not desired by the women. This put them on their mettle and they took action to convince the lawmakers that they did want it. The suffrage society was re-organized and a resolution was adopted by the executive board of the Local Council of Women and sent to every member of the Legislature. A joint independent committee was created with Mrs. Charles Archibald chairman and suffrage groups were formed within many organiza- tions of women. All the members of the Government were inter- viewed and many promised support and the two Government 1 On Dec. 6, 1921, Miss Agnes McPhail was elected to the House of Commons for Southeast Grey. 1 This Act was heralded far and wide, as it was unprecedented. In 1920, giving as a reason that the Act had been only a war measure, it was repealed bodily by the Parliament and the old Act substituted with a few amendments that did not by any means give the privileges afforded by the new one. It was generally believed that this was done under the direct influence of England.