WAR
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THE WAR ISSUES
Agnes Macphail was a consistent and outspoken advocate for peace throughout her career. She was a long-time member and delegate of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and attended and spoke at anti-war rallies. When the National Defense strategy included subsidizing cadet training, Agnes Macphail voiced her concern that the training program was simply a way of creating more war. Her stance drew vehement opposition inside the House of Commons and from the public, but she also had her share of supporters. Undaunted, Agnes Macphail campaigned against cadet training and moved that physical and peace education be subsidized for all students instead.
FIRST CANADIAN WOMAN DELEGATE TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
In 1929, Agnes Macphail was nominated as the first Canadian woman delegate to the League of Nations. The League, founded in 1919, embodied the idea of worldwide peace for Agnes Macphail and she made certain to get the most out of her privilege in being there. Upon entering the congress, she refused to take her designated spot on a committee concerned with the health and welfare of women and children, insisting on a seat with the disarmament committee where her speeches and ideas were admired and warmly received.
In the gathering gloom before World War II, however, Canada was asked to fight and Agnes Macphail recognized that the ideals of peace would not stop Hitler's army and she felt obliged to vote yes. While the anti-war members of Parliament were never rewarded with any specific Canadian political stances for peace, Agnes Macphail and her colleagues managed to represent strategies for peace during Parliamentary discussions of National Defense and international relations and to uphold ideals of peaceable negotiation as a valid and desirable alternative to war.
