Margaret Rae Morrison Luckock (October 15, 1893 – January 24, 1972) known as Rae Luckock was a feminist, social justice activist, peace activist and, with
Agnes Macphail
Agnes Campbell MacPhail (March 24, 1890 – February 13, 1954) was a Canadian politician and the first woman elected to Canada's House of Commons. She served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1921 to 1940; from 1943 to 1945 and again from 1948 ...
, one of the first two women elected to the
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...
, in 1943. A member of the
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section)
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section) – The Farmer-Labor Party of Ontario, or more commonly known as the Ontario CCF, was a democratic socialist provincial political party in Ontario that existed from 1932 to 1961. It was the ...
, also known as the Ontario CCF, Luckock was elected to the Ontario legislature in the
1943 Ontario general election
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
* January 4 – ...
representing
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
's
Bracondale
Bracondale was a provincial electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1926 to 1967. The constituency got its name from an old Toronto suburb called Bracondale, that was annexed b ...
constituency (
riding). She served as a
Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) until she was defeated in the
1945 Ontario general election
The 1945 Ontario general election was held on June 4, 1945, to elect the 90 members of the 22nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Members of Provincial Parliament, or "MPPs") of the Province of Ontario.
The Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, ...
. She became the
Congress of Canadian Women's founding president in 1950, and became a victim of the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
's
anti-communist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
hysteria when she was denied entry into the United States, because she travelled to
"Red" China and invited Soviet women to visit Canada. She contracted Parkinson's disease in the mid-1950s and mostly was bedridden until her death in 1972.
Background and early life
Luckock was raised on a family farm in
Arthur, Ontario
Arthur (population 2,450) is a community located just north of Highway 6 and Wellington Road 109 in the township of Wellington North, Ontario, Canada. Formerly an independent village, Arthur was amalgamated into Wellington North on January 1, 1 ...
. Her father,
James J. Morrison James J. (J.J.) Morrison (1861–1936) was a Canadian farm leader in Ontario, Canada, a founder of the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) in 1914, and a leader of the co-operative movement. He was the UFO's sometimes controversial general secretary, ...
, was a founder of the
United Farmers of Ontario
The United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) was an agrarian and populist provincial political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century.
History
Foundation and r ...
and served as the party's
general secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
during the UFO's years in power.
She married Richard Luckock, a tool-and-die maker, in 1914, and the couple ultimately settled in Toronto.
Luckock worked as a seamstress during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
but had to go on social relief when she became unemployed. During this period, her daughter contracted
scarlet fever
Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...
and died. The tragedy motivated Luckock's lifelong fight for social programs.
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Rae Luckock joined the
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialism, democra ...
(CCF) at its inception in 1932 and served as a local party activist. She ran for the Toronto school board several times before winning election as a trustee in 1943. Later that year she was the CCF's successful candidate in Bracondale for the provincial election and resigned her position on the school board.
Elected to Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The 1943 election was a major breakthrough for the
Ontario CCF
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section) – The Farmer-Labor Party of Ontario, or more commonly known as the Ontario CCF, was a democratic socialist provincial political party in Ontario that existed from 1932 to 1961. It was the ...
propelling them to
official opposition
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...
status in a
minority legislature with 34 seats.
Luckock and Agnes Macphail were both elected to the provincial legislature for the first time that year, the first women ever to serve as
Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs).
As new MPPs were usually sworn in in alphabetical order, Luckock was due to become the first woman ever sworn in as an MPP, but she deferred to Macphail in recognition of the latter's long career as a federal
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
.
Luckock was thus the second woman to take the MPP's oath.
[
In the legislature, Luckock served as the CCF's education critic and promoted the idea of free university tuition and improved rural education. She also championed the equality of women by advocating ]equal pay for equal work
Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...
and pay for homemakers.
Luckock was defeated in the 1945 provincial election which reduced the CCF caucus to only eight MPPs and third party status.
She served as president of the Housewives and Consumers Association (HCA) from 1943 to 1944, and organized its 1948 "March of a Million Names" campaign that petitioned the federal government to lower the price of consumer goods. A million names were gathered for the petition which was presented to Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Li ...
by Luckock at a large rally on Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill (french: Colline du Parlement, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their architectu ...
. The campaign resulted in the federal government taking action against milling and baking companies for artificially fixing the price of bread.
Alleged Communist affiliations
Members of the communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
Labor-Progressive Party
The Labor-Progressive Party (french: Parti ouvrier-progressiste) was the legal Front organization, front of the Communist Party of Canada from 1943 to 1959.
Origins and initial success
In the 1940 Canadian federal election, 1940 federal elect ...
were involved in the HCA leading it to be labelled a "communist front
A communist front is a political organization identified as a front organization under the effective control of a communist party, the Communist International or other communist organizations. They attracted politicized individuals who were not pa ...
". The CCF had actively purged suspected Communists from its ranks since its founding and Luckock's involvement with the HCA brought her under suspicion and resulting in demands that she choose between leaving the HCA or being expelled from the CCF. Luckock chose the HCA and was expelled from the CCF in 1948. The party had a resurgence of fortunes in that year's provincial election and regained her riding of Bracondale but with Harry Walters as the new CCF standard-bearer instead of Luckock.
The HCA joined with other women's groups to form the Congress of Canadian Women in 1950, and Luckock was elected its first president. The Congress was involved with the peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...
during the Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, and facilitated meetings between people from the Soviet Union and Canadians, by inviting them to visit Canada.
Banned from US
Luckock attended conferences of the World Peace Council
The World Peace Council (WPC) is an international organization with the self-described goals of advocating for universal disarmament, sovereignty and independence and peaceful co-existence, and campaigns against imperialism, weapons of mass d ...
, including one in the People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
in 1956. As a result, she was blacklisted
Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...
, and was once barred from entry into the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. She successfully argued that she should be allowed in.
Luckock was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...
shortly after her trip to China and spent the last years of her life in hospital.
See also
* List of peace activists
This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work ...
Citations
References
Biography
from Libraries and Archives Canada
Famous Women of the Grand
includes biographical article on Luckock
*Dawber, Michael, ''After you Agnes: Mrs. Rae Luckock, MPP'', Tweed, Ont: Quinte-Web Press, c1994.
*Sangster, Joan, ''Dreams of equality: women on the Canadian left, 1920-1950'', Toronto : McClelland & Stewart, c1989.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luckock, Rae
Canadian feminists
Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPPs
20th-century Canadian politicians
Canadian pacifists
Canadian socialists
1893 births
1972 deaths
Women MPPs in Ontario
Canadian socialist feminists
Pacifist feminists
Toronto District School Board trustees