- Margaret Aitken
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Margaret Aitken Member of Parliament for York—Humber In office
1953–1962Preceded by new district Succeeded by Ralph Cowan Personal details Born July 3, 1908
Newcastle, New BrunswickDied November 19, 1980 (aged 72)Political party Progressive Conservative Occupation Journalist Margaret Aitken (July 3, 1908 – November 19, 1980) was a Canadian author, columnist, journalist, and politician.
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Background
Aitken was born in Newcastle, New Brunswick. She attended Branksome Hall in Toronto.[1] She was the daughter of J. Mauns Aitken and her uncle was Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook. Her brother, William Aitken and his son Jonathan Aitken (her nephew) were members of the British House of Commons.[1]
She started with the Toronto Telegram in 1938 and was a foreign correspondent. She was noted for covering the birth of Israel as a nation and she became a strong supporter of the Jewish state.[1] In 1953, she wrote a book Hey Ma! I Did It (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company) about her political campaign in the same year.
Politics
In the 1953 federal election, she was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the riding of York—Humber as the Progressive Conservative candidate, winning by 67 votes. Along with Sybil Bennett, Ellen Fairclough and Ann Shipley, she was one of four women elected to the House of Commons that year, only the second election in Canadian history in which more than one woman was elected to Parliament.
In 1957 she became the first woman to be appointed chair of a parliamentary committee, the Standing Committee on Standing Orders. The committee discusses rules of the House.[2] She was re-elected in 1957 and 1958. She was defeated in 1962 by 662 votes.
Later life
In 1962, Aitken was appointed as Canada's representative to the UN's Commission on Human Rights.[3] She died at age 72 after a long illness.
Electoral record
Canadian federal election, 1953 Party Candidate Votes % ±% Progressive Conservative Margaret Aitken 11,157 Liberal Kenneth L. Thompson 11,090 Co-operative Commonwealth Jennie B. Prosser 4,924 Canadian federal election, 1957 Party Candidate Votes % ±% Progressive Conservative Margaret Aitken 18,449 Liberal Kenneth L. Thompson 10,851 Co-operative Commonwealth Margaret Thetford 4,872 Social Credit Charles R. Ellis 1,324 Canadian federal election, 1958 Party Candidate Votes % ±% Progressive Conservative Margaret Aitken 23,723 Liberal Elena Murdock Dacosta 9,557 Co-operative Commonwealth Leonard Collins 6,257 Canadian federal election, 1962 Party Candidate Votes % ±% Liberal Ralph Cowan 15,526 Progressive Conservative Margaret Aitken 14,864 New Democratic Party Charles Millard 11,622 Social Credit Ronald G. Sibbald 564 Publications
- Aitken, Margaret; Sanders, Byrne Hope (1953). Hey Ma! I did it. Clarke, Irwin & co. Ltd.. pp. xiv, 213.
References
External links
Categories:- 1908 births
- 1980 deaths
- Canadian newspaper journalists
- Canadian women journalists
- Canadian women Members of Parliament
- Members of the Canadian House of Commons from Ontario
- Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs
- Women in Ontario politics
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