Last Suffragist Standing

"Canada's vibrant suffrage movement was a complicated story of achievement and loss. The Last Suffragist Standing is an unprecedented study of a pioneering Canadian suffragist and politician, a New Woman who tested Canadian democracy. A rich product of archival and public sources, this biography of Laura Marshall Jamieson (1882-1964) opens a window into the political and social landscape of the time. Veronica Strong-Boag chronicles Jamieson's life from orphaned child of marginal Ontario farmers to member of British Columbia's Legislative Assembly and Vancouver city councillor. The last suffragist in Canada to be elected to a provincial or federal legislature, Jamieson embraced issues such as factory labour conditions, minimum wage, feminist pacifism, housing, municipal franchise, and employment equality throughout her six decades of activism. Jamieson's political radicalism was forged by the suffragist movement and the Great Depression, whetted by her exposure to mainstream and fringe activist groups, and tempered during her tenures in office. Strong-Boag's meticulous research and deep knowledge of the history of the women's movement and Canadian politics turn this compelling account of a woman's life into an illuminating work on the history of feminism, socialism, internationalism, and activism in Canada."--