Manitoba Political Equality League
Presentation of petition by the League in Winnipeg on 23 December 1915. Back: Mrs. A.N. Thomas, Mrs. F.J. Dixon. Front: Dr. Mary Crawford, Amelia Burritt
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| Formation | 1912 |
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| Extinction | 1916 |
| Legal status | Defunct |
| Purpose | Obtain women's suffrage |
| Headquarters | Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Region
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Manitoba |
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Official language
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English |
The Political Equality League was a group active in Manitoba, Canada between 1912 and 1916 that successfully lobbied for women's suffrage at the provincial level. One of the highlights of the campaign was a mock parliament in which Nellie McClung parodied the Conservative premier Rodmond Roblin, with a parliament of women dismissing men's claims for rights using the same arguments used by men to dismiss women's claims.
The Political Equality League was founded in March 1912 during a meeting at the Winnipeg home of Mrs. Jane Hample. The founders were progressive middle-class men and women, mostly well-educated professionals of Anglo-Saxon origin. Typically they believed in the Social Gospel. The main goal was to achieve the right of women to vote, but the league also was active in issues such as tariffs, labor law and prohibition of alcohol.
Members of the Winnipeg branch of the Canadian Women's Press Club formed the nucleus of the league and included Francis Marion Beynon,Lillian Beynon Thomas, Nellie McClung and Ella Cora Hind. Lynn and Winona Flett also joined, as did men such as George Fisher Chipman and Fred Dixon.
Dixon was elected secretary-treasurer, and his future wife Winona Flett was made superintendent of literature. Lillian Beynon Thomas was the first president, but Dr. Mary E. Crawford soon took over the leadership.
Unlike organizations in Britain at the time, the league avoided violence and campaigned by distributing pamphlets, organizing petitions and staging peaceful demonstrations. Speakers such as Lillian Beynon Thomas and Nellie McClung gave talks on suffrage and maternal feminism at theaters and halls across Manitoba, often encountering a hostile reception. According to McClung the government of Rodmond Roblin sent "stooges" to cause trouble at the meetings. In 1913 the league presented a petition signed by 20,000 men to Tobias Norris, leader of the Liberal Party. He agreed to support female suffrage.
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