Mr. Speaker, today marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Agnes Macphail.
Agnes was the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons in the very first election in which women had the right to vote. She later became one of the first two women elected to the Ontario legislature and the first to be seated.
Agnes Macphail was recognized for her commitment and advocacy for women's rights, fairness to seniors, prison reform, peace and disarmament, housing, health care and education. One of her major achievements occurred in 1951 when she championed pay equity in Ontario.
In honour of her life-long contributions, Ontario honoured Agnes by proclaiming March 24 Agnes Macphail Day. No such honour has followed at the federal level.
At first that surprised me, but on reading the damning report to the UN about the record of successive Liberal and Conservative governments on women's issues, it was clearly too hypocritical to contemplate. So it falls to New Democrats to honour Agnes Macphail by continuing her fight for equality.
We share her belief that Canadian women deserve fairness, affordability, opportunity, equal pay for work of equal value, a decent standard of living and the freedom to live without fear. For us, every day is Agnes Macphail Day.