Louise Mckinney

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Louise Mckinney was born on September 22, 1868 in Frankville, Ontario and died on July 10, 1931 in Claresholm, Northwest Territories (now Alberta)

She took a teachers course at College in Ottawa, Ontario These are some of the things she did in her life.

Her profession was a teacher, temperance and women's rights activist and Alberta MLA

Causes of Louise McKinney:  temperance education stronger liquor control women's property rights and the Dower Act

Political Affiliation: Non-Partisan League

Riding: Claresholm

Career of Louise McKinney:

  Louise McKinney was a teacher in Ontario and then in North Dakota She moved to a homestead near Claresholm, Northwest Territories in 1903

Louise McKinney became involved in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) while in North Dakota, and organized a chapter in Claresholm. She continued as an organizer for the WCTU for more than 20 years, eventually becoming acting president of the national organization.

Louise McKinney was elected to the Alberta Legislative Assembly in 1917, in the first election in which Canadian women could run for office or vote. Suspicious of the political donations made by large brewing and liquor companies to the major parties, Louise McKinney ran under the banner of the Non-Partisan League, an agrarian movement. With the help of Henrietta Edwards, Louise McKinney introduced the bill that became the Dower Act, which guaranteed a woman a third of the family estate when her husband died.

Louise McKinney was defeated in the 1921 Alberta election and did not run again.

Louise McKinney was one of four women to sign the Basis of Union forming the United Church of Canada in 1925

Louise McKinney was one of the "Famous Five" in the Persons Case which established the status of women as persons under the BNA Act in 1929.

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Louise Crummy was born in Frankville, Ontario in 1868. She met and married James McKinney in North Dakota where she was a teacher. They had one son, Willard. The McKinney's moved to Alberta in 1903. In 1917, Mrs. McKinney was elected - the first woman legislator in the British Empire - and became one of the most able debators in the Assembly. One of her major projects was to improve the antiquated legal status of widows and separated wives. With the help of Mrs. O.C.Edwards of Fort Macleod, a bill was drafted and passed to become the Dower Act,one of Alberta's most progressive laws.

Defeated in her second election, she was satisfied to retire from active politics until 1929 when she was one of the five women of Alberta who carried the appeal to the Privy Council which established the status of women as "person" under the British North America Act. Her portrait, honoring her as the first woman legislator, hangs in the Legislative Buildings in Edmonton. In honour of the anniversary of the "Persons" Case, statues of the Famous Five have been commissioned and now stand in Calgary and in Ottawa. A display honoring Louise Crummy McKinney is also located in the Claresholm Museum.