Margaret Haile () was a Canadian

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a teacher and journalist by profession. She was active in the socialist movements in both Canada and the United States. Frederic Heath's "Socialism in America", published in January 1900 in the ''Social Democracy Red Book'', lists her, along with Corinne Stubbs Brown and

Eugene V. Debs Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party o ...

, among "One Hundred Well-known Social Democrats".

Biography

Born in Canada, Haile spent some time working for socialist causes in

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. A resident of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

in 1901, Haile was a member of the nine member unity committee of the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

faction of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

as it planned the formation of the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...

. She was one of two women on that body. Haile returned to Canada shortly thereafter, and became in 1902 the first woman to run for legislative office in Canada, when she was nominated on the platform of the

Canadian Socialist League The Canadian Socialist League (CSL) was the first nationwide socialist organization founded in Canada. It originated in Montreal in 1898, but was strongest in Ontario and British Columbia. The leaders espoused a moderate socialism based on Chris ...

as a candidate in Toronto North in the 1902 Ontario provincial election.Janice Newton
The feminist challenge to the Canadian Left, 1900–1918
Although her nomination was accepted and she received 79 votes, a woman was not eligible to sit as a member of the Legislative Assembly.Frederick Brent Scollie, "The Woman Candidate for the Ontario Legislative Assembly, 1919-1929," ''Ontario History'', CIV (Autumn 2012), 6. She may have been the first woman to run for major elected office within the entire British Empire.

References

External links

* Margaret Haile,
Some Theories of Party Organization
, ''Social Democratic Herald'', Vol. 4, No. 1 (22 June 1901) (accessed 28 November 2006) American socialists Canadian expatriates in the United States Canadian socialists Socialist Party of America politicians from Massachusetts Women in Ontario politics Year of birth missing Year of death missing 20th-century Canadian politicians 20th-century Canadian women politicians {{Ontario-politician-stub