Electoral Firsts In Canada

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

First women in cabinet
*Provincial and Territorial:
**Mary Ellen Smith
**Irene Parlby, 1921, Alberta, United Farmers of Alberta
**Marie-Claire Kirkland 1962, Quebec, Liberal
**Thelma Forbes, 1966, Manitoba, Progressive Conservative
**Hilda Watson, 1970, Yukon, Consensus government in Canada
**Brenda Robertson, 1970, New Brunswick, Progressive Conservative
**Margaret Birch, 1972, Ontario, Progressive Conservative
**Jean Canfield, 1972, Prince Edward Island, Liberal
**Hazel Newhook and Lynn Verge, Newfoundland and Labrador, Progressive Conservative
**Joan Duncan and Patricia Anne Smith, 1982, Saskatchewan, Progressive Conservative
**Nellie Cournoyea, 1984, Northwest Territories, consensus government
**Maxine Cochran, 1985, Nova Scotia, Progressive Conservative
** Manitok Thompson, 1999, Nunavut, consensus government
* Federal:
**Ellen Fairclough, 1957, Progressive Conservative
**Associate Minister of National Defence: Mary Collins
*First female cabinetmember with a portfolio: Tilly Rolston
*First female Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons:
**Jeanne Sauvé, 1980–1984
*First female federal Justice Minister (Attorney General):
**Kim Campbell (Progressive Conservative)
*First female Defence Minister:
** Kim Campbell, (Progressive Conservative)
*First female Minister of Finance:
** Chrystia Freeland, (Liberal)
*First female Speaker of the House
** Nancy Hodges British Columbia Liberal, MLA 1941–1953, made speaker of British Columbia legislature in December 1949.Women in BC Politics
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*First female senator:
**Cairine Wilson, 1930
*First female Governor General of Canada:
** Jeanne Sauvé, (1984–1990)
*First female premiers
**Rita Johnston, British Columbia, 1991 (Social Credit)
**Nellie Cournoyea, Northwest Territories, 1991–1995, ( Consensus government)
**Catherine Callbeck, Prince Edward Island, 1993–1996, (first elected female Premier) (Liberal)
**Pat Duncan, Yukon, 2000–2002, (Liberal)
**Eva Aariak, Nunavut, 2008–2013, (Consensus government)
**Kathy Dunderdale, Newfoundland and Labrador, 2010–2014, (Progressive Conservative)
**Alison Redford, Alberta, 2011–2014, (Progressive Conservative)
**Pauline Marois, Quebec, 2012–2014, (Parti Québécois)
**Kathleen Wynne, Ontario, 2013–2018, (Liberal)
**Heather Stefanson, Manitoba, 2021–present, (Progressive Conservative)
(New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan have not yet had a female premier.)

*First female deputy premier in:
**British Columbia: Grace McCarthy
*First female MLAs elected in British Columbia:
** Mary Ellen Smith, she was also the first woman elected anywhere in the British Empire, 1917–1921 Alberta Legislature for the Non Partisan League, a left-wing Prohibitionist socialist party.
*First female MLA elected in Saskatchewan:
** Sarah Ramsland, Saskatchewan Liberal, Pelly 1919 by-election, 1925. Replaced her husband Max who won the seat in 1917 general election after his death. Was re-elected in 1921 and defeated in 1925.
*First female MLA elected in Manitoba:
** Edith McTavish Rogers, Manitoba Liberal MLA 1920–1932
*First female MPPs elected in Ontario:
** Agnes Macphail and Rae Luckock, CCF (the forerunner to the New Democratic Party MPPs for York East 1943–1945, 1948–1951 and for Bracondale 1943–1945 respectively
*First female MNA elected in Quebec:
** Marie-Claire Kirkland, elected in 1961. Also first woman appointed a cabinet minister in Quebec, the first woman appointed acting premier, and the first woman judge to serve in the Quebec Provincial Court.
*First female MLA elected in New Brunswick:
** Brenda Robertson, New Brunswick Progressive Conservative MLA, 1967–1984
*First female candidate in Prince Edward Island:
** Hilda Ramsay, Prince Edward Island CCF candidate in 1951
*First female MLA elected in Prince Edward Island:
** Jean Canfield, Prince Edward Island Liberal MLA 1970–1979
*First female MHA elected in Newfoundland and Labrador (pre-Confederation):
** Helena Squires, MHA 1930–1932
*First female MLA elected in Nova Scotia:
** Gladys Porter, Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative MLA 1960–1967
*First female MLA elected in Yukon:
** G. Jean Gordon, non-affiliated, MLA 1967–1970
*First female MLA elected in Northwest Territories:
** Lena Pedersen (Pederson) in 1970 to 1975
*First female MLA elected in Nunavut:
** Manitok Thompson, Independent, 1999–2003 (Nunavut was created from the Northwest Territories in 1999, so Thompson served in its first legislature.)
*First female elected in a Nova Scotia municipal election:
** Mary Teresa Sullivan, Halifax City Council, 1936+
*First female elected in an Ontario municipal election:
** Constance Hamilton, Toronto City Council, 1920–21
*First female mayor, appointed:
** Violet Barss, Delia, Alberta (1920–1922)
*First female mayor, elected:
** Barbara Hanley