Canada 150 - Winning and losing the right to vote in 1917

Exactly 100 years ago, some women in Canada earned the right to vote federally.
There are a few caveats to that otherwise important landmark. One, the only women that were allowed to vote were relatives of soldiers who were fighting in the first world war. Two, it was part of an elaborate franchisement bill that also disenfranchised other voters. As explained by the Yorkton Enterprise on September 13, 1917, the bill disenfranchised the following: All naturalized citizens who, prior to March 31, 1902, were subjects of enemy countries; all British subjects either by birth or naturalization were conscientious objectors to war; and also all naturalized citizens, who though born outside of alien countries, own the language of enemy countries as their mother tongue.
The Enterprise’s reaction, as a result, was mixed. They were all for women being allowed to vote. In an editorial reprinted from the Winnipeg Saturday Post, the writer argued that extending full enfranchisement to the nation’s women was something best left to after the war owing to controversy - though it made plain that full enfranchisement was an inevitability.
“The women have played a great part in this war. They have made many sacrifices in many cases quite as great as any made by the men. Mothers, daughters and sisters who have given their sons, their brothers, their fathers and their husbands as sacrifices for the cause of civilization ought surely to be given a voice in the affairs of the nation, when that voice is needed to strengthen the hands of the Government to the point where it will be able adequately to support the army, that its extinction may be averted. No one can reasonably criticize the enfranchising of women who have made sacrifices of the first order during the past three years.”
The other half of the bill, however, was strongly criticized by the Enterprise’s editorial staff.
“The Liberal party is responsible for the Franchise Bill which it is holding up to the world as the most iniquitous and harmful legislation ever passed by a British Parliament,” they said.
Why did the Liberals get the blame? They were in the opposition at the time, but an election was looming and of the two parties, they were the most anti-war. The Enterprise argued that the anti-war stance of the Liberal party was the cause of a franchisement bill which effectively prevented anybody who was anti-war from actually placing a vote. They accused the “
“By misrepresentation and trickery, Calder and others of their ilk, to whom the game of politics and the spoils of office are the only things worth while in this world, have succeeded in arraying the foreign-born voters solidly against the Government at Ottawa,” said the Enterprise.
“Canada’s part in the war was to them a matter of secondary consideration. The loaves and fishes of office blinded them to all other considerations.”
Yorkton Auto and Garage was selling the new Ford Model Ts, with a Touring model going for $495 and the Runabout at $475. It’s telling that the ad copy considered the car’s main competition to be a horse, which it argued could not travel as far or carry as much produce to market. Right now, keeping it within the Ford family the least expensive car in inventory at Royal Ford is a Focus at $21,365. It is, however, significantly faster than the Ford Model T, let alone a horse.