Ours by every law of right and justice : women and the vote in the Prairie Provinces

Summary: Many of Canada's most famous suffragists - from Nellie McClung and Cora Hind to Emily Murphy and Henrietta Muir Edwards - lived and campaigned in the Prairie provinces, the region that led the way in granting women the right to vote and hold office. Manitoba enfranchised women in January 1916, and Saskatchewan and Alberta quickly followed in March and April. In Ours by Every Right and Justice, award-winning author Sarah Carter challenges the myth that grateful male legislators simply handed western women the vote in recognition that they were equal partners in the pioneering process. Suffragists worked long and hard to overcome obstacles, persuade doubters, and build allies. But their work also had a dark side. Carter situates the suffragists' struggle in the colonial history of the region, a period when Indigenous people were being cleared from the Plains and marginalized on reserves to make way for permanent settlers. Even as they pressured legislatures to grant their sisters the vote, settler suffragists often accepted and approved of that same right being denied to "foreigners" and to Indigenous men and women. This powerful and passionate account of prominent suffragists and their lesser-known allies shows that the right to vote meant different things to different people - political rights and emancipation for some, domination and democracy denied for others.