COVER STORY AGNES: THE LADY FROM GREY “A women’s place is anywhere she wants to be.” - Agnes Campbell Macphail The recent passing of the extraordinary stage and film actor Christopher Plummer has been deservedly well-documented. Many theatre critics have commented that we may never see his like again. The same can be said for another great Canadian, one Agnes Macphail, often referred to as the most important woman in public life that Canada produced in the 20th century. This is a particularly apt time in our history to be reminded that while Canadian women gained the right to vote in 1918, it is Grey County’s Agnes Macphail who ushered in a new era in Canadian politics in 1921. The first Canadian woman to be elected federally, she is also considered the first of two women elected to the Ontario Legislature in 1943. A teacher, journalist, orator, and lifelong champion of human rights, her successful trailblazing opened political doors for other women to follow. Agnes, a country girl from rural Grey County, entered this world on March 24, 1890, in what then was Proton Township. For her, the only woman among 11 candidates at the September 26, 1921 nomination meeting in Durham, Ontario, to emerge as the South-East Grey candidate for the United Farmers of Ontario/ Progressive Party was no small feat! It occurs to me that such a consummate professional as Plummer would have genuinely appreciated Agnes Macphail’s natural oratory and her witticism that enthralled audiences wherever she appeared during many years as a greatlyin-demand public lecturer. Widely touted as one of the great orators of her time, her speaking engagements were regularly booked by the same theatrical agency that handled Thornton Wilder, Thomas Mann, and Winston Churchill. While Plummer and Macphail may represent different times, as public figures both during their lifetimes had to endure media-perpetuated images not to their liking. In the noted actor’s case, it proved impossible to not be largely remembered as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. For Agnes it was a 16
lifetime of continually being identified as the staid, sharp-tongued, unmarried woman from rural Ontario — she of the practical coat and sensible shoes! The early media fuss over whether she would wear a hat when rising to speak in the House of Commons rather than giving attention to her groundbreaking role set the stage for ongoing heckling. Rightfully tired of being pictured as a spinster whom love had passed by, Macphail was to have the last laugh when she gave her papers to the National Archives, old love letters included, accompanied by instructions that they be read. It boggles the mind to imagine what the 31-year-old Agnes Macphail was up against, not only in her earliest years in politics but also during the many challenging years that followed. Not only had voters initially scoffed at her chances, other women included, but campaigning across such a wide-spread riding was exhausting and at times perilous, particularly when travelling by horse and cutter throughout the seemingly neverending Grey County winters. But Agnes, a tireless and powerful advocate for the United Farmers of Ontario, was made of good stuff and not one to shy away from adversity. A copy, now in my possession of “My Ain Folk” the brief unpublished family history written by Agnes c. 1950, emphasizes the importance of her Scottish roots and the benefits of being raised in an independent household. “My sisters and I were taught to control our feelings, and Mother seldom sympathized with childish hurts, or the troubles of older life either.” Asked once about her courage when confronted regularly with unflattering newspaper coverage for stands she had taken in the House of Commons, the place men had long considered their own, Macphail replied, “I have no consciousness of being brave, but if I am, I get it from my Mother. She was a Campbell.” Fortunately, Agnes was also favoured with the “gift of gab,” a characteristic amply possessed by her Ceylon, Ontario, farmer/auctioneer father Dougald. The talent would stand her in good stead when confronted by hecklers at heated political rallies, and it wasn’t long before she became a draw when on the stage with competing politicians —all
HELLO COUNTRY MAGAZINE
