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Meet Muriel McQueen Fergusson, the Senate Speaker who “blazed a trail through established conventions”

The appointment, in December 1972, of New Brunswick Senator Muriel McQueen Fergusson as the first female Speaker of the Senate ushered in a new era for women in Canadian politics.

Despite her mother’s conviction that a woman’s role was to marry and mind the home, she graduated from Sackville, New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University in 1921.

The 22-year-old apprenticed in her father’s law practice, becoming the fourth woman admitted to the bar in New Brunswick. Almost immediately, she put her budding law career on hold to marry fellow lawyer Aubrey Fergusson.

Muriel McQueen Fergusson’s official portrait was painted by Hubert Rogers, a versatile Canadian painter who spent the early part of his career as a science-fiction illustrator based in New York City. (1973, oil on canvas, H: 156 cm x W: 125.5 cm, Senate Artwork and Heritage Collection)
Senator Fergusson was studying at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. when this portrait was taken around 1920. (Photo credit: Mt A University Archives – 2003.04/1/29)

Her husband’s health later began to deteriorate, the result of injuries he suffered in the First World War. To keep the law practice afloat, Ms. Fergusson applied for readmission to the bar. She subsequently managed the bulk of the firm’s cases and became New Brunswick’s first female probate-court judge in 1935.

She refused to accept institutional barriers that prevented women from pursuing careers in law and politics.

In 1946, she won New Brunswick women the right to vote in municipal elections. She advocated for employment equity, successfully lobbying the city of Fredericton to extend a $100-a-year pay raise for male employees to include women.

She challenged the ban on women running for Fredericton City Council and, when the ban was lifted in 1950, became the city’s first female councillor. In 1953, she became the first female deputy mayor.

Senator Fergusson, photographed late in her career, sits in the Senate Speaker’s Chair.

Senator Fergusson receives a Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case from Jeanne Sauvé, Canada’s first female governor general, in 1986. (Photo credit: Status of Women Canada/ National Archives)

Her appointment to the Senate in 1953 vaulted her to the national stage. In November 1953, in her inaugural address in the Chamber, she paid homage to the Famous Five, the Alberta activists who, “played such a valiant part in bringing before the government the need of a decision by the courts on whether or not women should be considered persons under the British North America Act, and, therefore, eligible to be called to this house.”

She championed women in politics, noting that progressive countries like Canada recognize “that amongst their women is a tremendous resource of public-spirited individuals, many of them well trained and able and willing to contribute much to government on all levels.”

During her 22-year career in the Upper Chamber, she served on committees studying unemployment, divorce, women’s prisons, poverty and seniors’ assistance.

She believed the country had a duty to its citizens beyond achieving economic success on paper.

“Prosperity alone is not enough,” she said. “We need to provide also for the happiness and security of the individual citizen.”

She was appointed Speaker in 1972. Soon after, she opened the Senate page program to women. She served as Speaker until 1974 and retired a year later, having voted in favour of the 1965 constitutional amendment that made retirement mandatory for senators at age 75.

She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1976.

After her death in 1997, Joyce Fairbairn, Canada’s first female Leader of the Government in the Senate, acknowledged the debt she and other Canadian parliamentarians owed the New Brunswick senator.

“Muriel blazed a trail through established conventions, giving courage to others — some of whom sit in this chamber — to follow her lead.”

Meet Muriel McQueen Fergusson, the Senate Speaker who “blazed a trail through established conventions”

The appointment, in December 1972, of New Brunswick Senator Muriel McQueen Fergusson as the first female Speaker of the Senate ushered in a new era for women in Canadian politics.

Despite her mother’s conviction that a woman’s role was to marry and mind the home, she graduated from Sackville, New Brunswick’s Mount Allison University in 1921.

The 22-year-old apprenticed in her father’s law practice, becoming the fourth woman admitted to the bar in New Brunswick. Almost immediately, she put her budding law career on hold to marry fellow lawyer Aubrey Fergusson.

Muriel McQueen Fergusson’s official portrait was painted by Hubert Rogers, a versatile Canadian painter who spent the early part of his career as a science-fiction illustrator based in New York City. (1973, oil on canvas, H: 156 cm x W: 125.5 cm, Senate Artwork and Heritage Collection)
Senator Fergusson was studying at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. when this portrait was taken around 1920. (Photo credit: Mt A University Archives – 2003.04/1/29)

Her husband’s health later began to deteriorate, the result of injuries he suffered in the First World War. To keep the law practice afloat, Ms. Fergusson applied for readmission to the bar. She subsequently managed the bulk of the firm’s cases and became New Brunswick’s first female probate-court judge in 1935.

She refused to accept institutional barriers that prevented women from pursuing careers in law and politics.

In 1946, she won New Brunswick women the right to vote in municipal elections. She advocated for employment equity, successfully lobbying the city of Fredericton to extend a $100-a-year pay raise for male employees to include women.

She challenged the ban on women running for Fredericton City Council and, when the ban was lifted in 1950, became the city’s first female councillor. In 1953, she became the first female deputy mayor.

Senator Fergusson, photographed late in her career, sits in the Senate Speaker’s Chair.

Senator Fergusson receives a Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case from Jeanne Sauvé, Canada’s first female governor general, in 1986. (Photo credit: Status of Women Canada/ National Archives)

Her appointment to the Senate in 1953 vaulted her to the national stage. In November 1953, in her inaugural address in the Chamber, she paid homage to the Famous Five, the Alberta activists who, “played such a valiant part in bringing before the government the need of a decision by the courts on whether or not women should be considered persons under the British North America Act, and, therefore, eligible to be called to this house.”

She championed women in politics, noting that progressive countries like Canada recognize “that amongst their women is a tremendous resource of public-spirited individuals, many of them well trained and able and willing to contribute much to government on all levels.”

During her 22-year career in the Upper Chamber, she served on committees studying unemployment, divorce, women’s prisons, poverty and seniors’ assistance.

She believed the country had a duty to its citizens beyond achieving economic success on paper.

“Prosperity alone is not enough,” she said. “We need to provide also for the happiness and security of the individual citizen.”

She was appointed Speaker in 1972. Soon after, she opened the Senate page program to women. She served as Speaker until 1974 and retired a year later, having voted in favour of the 1965 constitutional amendment that made retirement mandatory for senators at age 75.

She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1976.

After her death in 1997, Joyce Fairbairn, Canada’s first female Leader of the Government in the Senate, acknowledged the debt she and other Canadian parliamentarians owed the New Brunswick senator.

“Muriel blazed a trail through established conventions, giving courage to others — some of whom sit in this chamber — to follow her lead.”

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