page_title: Agnes Macphail
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Agnes Macphail / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign at east end of unincorporated hamlet Ceylon (Grey Highlands, Ontario Canada) honouring Agnes Macphail. Agnes Macphail was the first woman elected as a Member of Parliament.
context_page_description: Agnes Campbell Macphail was a Canadian politician from Ontario who was the country's first female Member of Parliament. First elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1921, she served as an MP until 1940. Moving to provincial politics, from 1943 to 1945 and again from 1948 to 1951, she served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the Toronto riding of York East. Active throughout her life in progressive Canadian politics, Macphail worked for two separate parties. She also promoted her ideas through column-writing, activist organizing, and legislation.
context_section_description: Agnes Macphail was born to Dougald McPhail and Henrietta Campbell in Proton Township, Grey County, Ontario. Although her surname was spelled "McPhail" at birth, she discovered during a later trip to Scotland that her family's surname had been spelled as "Macphail" and changed her name to reflect this. She was raised in the Methodist Church, but converted to the Reorganized Latter Day Saint church as a teenager. This was the church of her missionary uncle.
  Macphail attended Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute for one year. Although she did well, she transferred to Stratford Normal School so she could complete her studies while boarding with a relative. She graduated in 1910 with a second-class teacher's certificate. She applied for five positions and was accepted at all five. She later said that this was not due to her competence but to a scarcity of teachers at the time. She taught in several rural Ontario schools in such communities as Port Elgin, Honeywood, and Newmarket.
  While working in Sharon, Macphail became active politically, joining the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) and its women's organization, the United Farm Women of Ontario. She also became a columnist for the Farmer's Sun around this time.
caption: "Agnes Macphail Country" sign at eastern approach to Ceylon, Ontario
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