History Corner - Thomas Walter Scott, Premier of Saskatchewan

It was under the premiership of T. Walter Scott that women obtained the right to vote in provincial elections 100 years ago.

Scott was Saskatchewan’s first Premier from 1905 until 1916. He wanted Saskatchewan to be known across Canada as the most progressive province.

He was open to dialogue with suffragist leaders who were working to gain the right for women to vote, but he requested leaders canvass the province for more women’s signatures on petitions. Two prominent leaders of the movement were Violet McNaughton from Harris, Saskatchewan, who was also a founder of the Women’s Grain Growers Association in 1914, and  Alice Lawton of Yorkton who headed the Provincial Equal Suffrage Board. At a meeting at the Legislative Building in Regina on Feb. 14, 1916, Premier Scott announced that Saskatchewan woman who were British subjects and 21 years of age would now have the right to vote in provincial elections. Violet McNaughton saw the day as a historic occasion and Alice Lawton saw it as a day of triumph. As for the federal elections, Canadian women won the right to vote in 1918. However, there were exceptions, — one was Aboriginal women!  As Native of Canada, Aboriginal women and men should have had the same rights as all British subjects had, but it was only in 1960 that both were allowed to vote. Save for unjust exceptions, whatever voting rights were achieved was indeed a triumph, because before 1916, the only countries whose women could vote were: New Zealand in 1893, Australia in 1901, Finland in 1906 and Norway in 1913. Locally,  the Canadian Federation of University Women Yorkton, Inc. (1954), whose advocacy and work is for the advancement of the status of women worldwide, recognizes the struggles and successes of suffragists of Saskatchewan as we celebrate 100 years of the history of women’s right to vote.