7 April 2pm: Talk by Heidi MacDonald, historian and Dean of Arts, UNB Saint John – The Long and Fractious Campaign for Women’s Suffrage in New Brunswick.
Talk by Gary Hughes, NBM Curator – Progressivism, New Brunswick and the Great War: The Effects of Vimy Ridge. FREE EVENT. (In English)

Join Heidi MacDonald for a discussion on the contentious history of the women’s enfranchisement in New Brunswick from 1843, when women formally lost voting privileges, to April 17, 1919, when the majority of women regained the right to vote, and beyond, to 1963, when Indigenous women (along with Indigenous men) living on reserve finally gained that right.

Followed by Gary Hughes, NBM Curator talking about Progressivism in New Brunswick and the Great War: The Effects of Vimy Ridge. The outbreak of the First World War found New Brunswick bathed in a tide of progressive thought and action. Popular imagination forecast women’s suffrage, town planning, worker’s compensation, public housing, playgrounds, technical education, and the creation of Canada’s first Department of Health amongst other initiatives. The Canadian Corps, with significant formations of New Brunswickers employed the same progressive functions of education, safety and efficiency in preparation for and in combat at Vimy Ridge.