Nellie mcclung should men vote speech
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Gentlemen of the delegation, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you here today. We like delegations, and although this fryst vatten the first time you have asked us for the vote, we hope it will not be the gods. Come any time and ask for anything you like. We wish to congratulate you, took, on the quiet and på ett kvinnligt sätt way in which you have komma into our presence; and we assure you that if the working dock in England had fought for their franchise in such a pleasing and dignified way, the results would have been entirely different. If they had used these peaceful means and no other, they might still be enjoying the distinction and privilege of waiting on members of Parliament.
But I cannot do what you ask me to do, for the facts are all against you. Manhood suffrage has not been a success in the unhappy countries where it has been tried. They either do not vote at all, or else they vote too much, and the best men shrink away from the polls as from a pestilence . . .
Manhood suffrage would pl
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[Lively Music]
[Narrator] In 1914, women in Manitoba were eager to win the right to vote. They decided that humour was their best weapon in the fight for equality with men.
[Performers] Come out the night of crime has fled—
Day is begun;
Here is no criminal to dread—
Only your son.
The world, half yours, demands your care...
[E. Cora Hind] Ready for our pretend debate, ladies?
[Nellie McClung] Let's show them what things would be like if women had all the power!
[Francis Graham] Well, be careful "Madame Premier."
As the speaker of this parliament, I might just rule you out of order.
[Nellie McClung] Let's go!
[Clapping and cheering]
[Nellie McClung] Now, do remember...
For the next hour or so, women have all the rights and men have none.
[Cheering]
[Francis Graham] I now call upon the member representing the society for the prevention of ugliness.
[E. Cora Hind] We wish to make it law that no man wearing a scarlet necktie, a six-inch collar or squeaky shoes may ente
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Winning with Humor: 'Should Men Vote?'
"Of course, with the customary hot-headedness of reformers, you never thought of that. Oh, no, just like a man, you never thought of the expense . . . "
– From Nellie McClung's speech "Should Men Vote?"
Nellie McClung and other Canadian suffragists were told repeatedly that nice women didn’t vote. Manitoba’s premier Rodmond Roblin said in January 1914 that if women voted it would be "a retrograde movement … it will break up the home."
McClung, a skilled orator and writer, countered that remark with humor. On January 29, 1914, she played the leading role in a mock parliament at the Walker Theater in Winnipeg, where she gave the speech “Should Men Vote?”
Her approach lampooned Roblin and the many reasons she and her fellow suffragists had heard for denying women the vote.
McClung’s delivery was reported to have been over-the-top, getting big laughs from the largely female audience. McClung became a