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Agnes Macphail, September 12, 1926. City of Toronto Archives, Globe and Mail fonds, Fonds 1266, Item 8807. Today marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most important federal elections in Canadian history. When voters cast their ballots on December 6, 1921, they elected the country's first female MP (Agnes Macphail), ended a decade of Conservative rule (under Robert Borden and Arthur Meighen), ushered in the William Lyon Mackenzie King era, and, via the Progressive Party, smashed the two-party system which had served the country since Confederation. I wrote about this campaign and its impact for TVO a few years ago , but never got around to writing a "bonus features" post like I usually do when I've gathered plenty of interesting material. The centennial of the election feels like the right time to haul research discoveries out of their slumber on my computer. Toronto Star, October 7, 1921. A cringey-from-modern-perspective profile of Macphail. Flesherton Advance...

One of our intrepid WEC field reporters had a stunning expose to shock voters to the core, ready to go for this episode...until his laptop got in the path of a Stephen Harper snowball. Newsstand Watch A.S. Pryncesse returns with another look at what the papers say... The Globe and Mail is closing in on its prey... A lot can change in a week. If the polling numbers are to be believed, and this humble writer remains ever skeptical, the Conservatives are 8-10 points ahead of the Liberals and Smug Stephen will soon become Prime Minister. Not wanting to pick a loser, the Globe has apparently abandoned its role as Liberal apologist and begun to print more overtly critical articles about the Liberal party, while correspondingly writing more complimentary articles about the Conservatives. Things began quietly early in the week; their report on the English debate was actually quite balanced, highlighting some of the best quotes from every party leader (meanwhile, the National Pos...