Louise Crummy McKinney (1868-1931): A Window into Western Canadian Christianity

Abstract

Louise Crummy McKinney was a prominent social activist and popular preacher in Alberta during the first three decades of the twentieth century. McKinney was president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Alberta and Saskatchewan for over twenty-two years, and vice-president of the Dominion WCTU for twenty-one years. Shortly before her death in 1931 she was elected as first vice-president of the World WCTU. In 1917 McKinney also made history by becoming the first female elected to the Alberta Provincial Legislature and the first female MLA in the British Empire. In addition, she was a Methodist local preacher, Sunday School superintendent, church organizer, Bible class leader, a champion of women’s ordination, a teacher, writer and an international speaker. Further, she was a delegate to the final Methodist General Conference in 1925, and in that same year was one of only four woman chosen to sign the Basis of Union for the United Church of Canada alongside 327 male counterparts. Louise C. McKinney was also one of the Famous Five women in the Persons Case, who successfully petitioned the British Privy Council in 1929 for full legal definition and recognition of women as persons under Canadian law.