began in
Nova Scotia, (1906), Local Council of Women, Halifax, Nova Scotia The year following the defeat of the first suffrage bill, the Local Council was established in 1894 as the local chapter of the
National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC). On August 30, 1894, the executive committee met for the first time at
Government House.
Emma MacIntosh serving as the first president.
Anna Leonowens was the secretary.
Enfranchisement was the issue. (The concomitant preoccupation with enfranchisement was reflected locally in the founding of the
Woman’s Suffrage Association in March 1895; Leonowens was president, assisted by sisters
Eliza Ritchie and Mary Walcott Ritchie, along with Charlotte McInnes.) Between 1892 and 1895, thirty-four suffrage petitions were presented to the Nova Scotia legislature, and six suffrage bills were introduced, the final one in 1897. In June 1897 the annual meeting of the National Council was convened in Halifax, where presentations were made by
Lady Aberdeen and American suffragist
May Wright Sewall. On April 26, 1918, with the support of premier
George Henry Murray, the Assembly passed
The Nova Scotia Franchise Act, which gives women the right to vote in Nova Scotia's provincial elections, the first province to do so in Atlantic Canada. (A month later Nova Scotian and
Prime Minister of Canada Robert Borden - whose wife
Laura Bond was former president of the LCWH - used his majority to pass women's suffrage for the whole country. Almost forty-three years later, on 1 February 1961,
Gladys Porter became the first woman elected to the House of Assembly.) == Other contributions ==