Grace MacInnis

About the Book

Grace MacInnis, the sole woman in Canada's Parliament from 1968 to 1972, was a strong spokesperson both for women and for Canada's underprivileged.

The words, "daughter of J.S. Woodsworth" were appended to Grace MacInnis's biographical notes during her lifetime. Her father, J.S. Woodsworth,  was the "prophet in Canadian politics" who founded the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, forerunner of the New Democratic Party, and earlier books about Grace present her work as a continuation of his ideals and tradition. True, yet Grace's major contribution to Canadian political discourse was in the area of women's issues.  

In this area, she was chiefly influenced by her mother, and the "first wave" of maternal feminism in Canada. Her own life, which spanned much of the twentieth century, reflects the issues and dilemmas faced by many women of her time.

About the Author

E. Joyce Trott, B.A., M.A, Born and brought up in Great Britain, Joy has lived in Canada for most of her adult life. She worked for twenty-five years for the Canadian federal government. Now retired, she continues to take an active interest in political and social issues, particularly those relating to women. In the 1970s, as a student at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Ruth Latta (B.A., M.A.) admired Grace MacInnis for her work on women's issues. Ruth now writes and teaches in Ottawa, Ontario.