This article lists notable achievements of women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgender people in Canadian politics and elections in Canada.
This list includes: Members of Parliament—Members of the House of Commons of Canada; Senators—Members of the Senate of Canada Governor-general—Canadian Governors General and Lieutenant Governors Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs); Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs in Ontario); Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) in Quebec; and Members of the House of Assembly (MHAs) in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Women
First female elected in Canada: Maria Grant is the first woman in Canada to be elected to any office, in 1895. She served six years on the Victoria School Board and was presented to the future George V as the only woman elected as a school trustee in Canada. First female candidate in provincial election in Canada: Margaret Haile ran as a candidate of the Canadian Socialist League in Toronto North for the 1902 Ontario provincial election, becoming the first woman ever to stand in a provincial election. She herself was not allowed to vote in the election. Earliest elected woman in Canada (first woman in Canada elected at the federal, provincial or municipal level): Hannah Gale, Alderman in Calgary, 1917. (This was the first city election in Canada where a proportional representation electoral system (Single transferable voting) was used.) First woman elected to a legislature in Canada: Louise McKinney, first woman elected to a legislature anywhere in the British Empire, member 1917–1921 of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for the Non Partisan League, a left-wing prohibitionist socialist party. (Roberta MacAdams, a member of the Canadian Army Medical Corps, was also elected in the 1917 Alberta general election, as a member at large in overseas voting by Albertans serving in the First World War. McKinney was the first woman declared elected because the overseas voting was completed after the in-province election.)
First two women serving at the same time in a legislature anywhere in Canada: Alberta MLAs Louise McKinney and Roberta McAdams, served 1917 to 1921 First woman candidates in a federal election. Five women ran in the first federal election in which women were allowed to become candidates (1921). (Note: Some women had been granted the right to vote, but not to run as candidates, in the wartime election of 1917. Even in 1921, still many women were denied the right to vote – status Indians, those on the Indian Register, did not get the right to vote in federal elections until 1960.) Harriet S. Dick, Winnipeg Centre, Independent; 2,314 (4th Place, 4/5) Rose Mary Louise Henderson, St. Lawrence—St. George, Labour Party; 510 (Last Place, 3/3) Elizabeth Bethune Kiely, Toronto East, Liberal; 52 votes (Last Place, 5/5) Agnes Macphail, Grey Southeast, Progressive Party; 6,958 (1st; 1/3) Harriet Dunlop Prenter, Toronto West, Labour Party; 1,741 (Last Place, 3/3) First women elected to the Canadian House of Commons: Agnes Macphail, Progressive, United Farmers of Ontario, Labour, Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) MP Grey South and Grey—Bruce, from 1921 to 1940. She was also one of two women who were the first women as MPPs in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the Ontario CCF (the forerunner to the New Democratic Party) for the riding of York East 1943–1945 and 1948–1951 Martha Black, Independent Conservative, MP Yukon, 1935–1940 Dorise Nielsen, Unity (Communist) and Labor-Progressive (Communist) MP North Battleford, Saskatchewan 1940–1945 Cora Taylor Casselman, teacher, Liberal MP, Edmonton East, 1941–1945 Gladys Strum, teacher, CCF MP Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, 1945–1949 First woman to run in for a federal seat in Quebec: Idola Saint-Jean ran as Independent-Liberal candidate in 1930. First female prime minister: Kim Campbell, Progressive Conservative Prime Minister 1993