"It's particularly important to have a tribute to Nellie McClung," said Senator Sharon Carstairs. "She was responsible for getting the vote for women in Manitoba."

"By nice women you probably mean selfish women who have no more thought for the underpaid, overworked woman than a pussycat in a sunny window has for the starving kitten on the street," McClung replied. "Now in that sense I am not a nice woman, for I do care. I care about those factory women working in ill-smelling holes and we intend to do something about it and when I say 'we' I'm talking for a great many women, of whom you will hear more as the days go on."

The "exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours," wrote one committee member. "And to those who would ask why the word "person" should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it not?"