Thérèse Casgrain

Thérèse Forget Casgrain
Thérèse Forget Casgrain, c. 1942
Senator for Mille Isles, Quebec
In office
October 7, 1970  July 10, 1971
Appointed byPierre Trudeau
Preceded byGustave Monette
Succeeded byRenaude Lapointe
Leader of the Parti social démocratique du Québec
In office
1951–1957
Preceded byRomuald-Joseph Lamoureux
Succeeded byMichel Chartrand
Personal details
Born(1896-07-10)July 10, 1896
Saint-Irénée, Quebec, Canada
DiedNovember 3, 1981(1981-11-03) (aged 85)
Montreal
Political partyCo-operative Commonwealth Federation (1945-1961)
Parti social démocratique du Québec,
New Democratic Party (1961-1970)
Independent
SpousePierre-François Casgrain (1916–1950; his death)
RelationsSir Rodolphe Forget, father
ChildrenTwo daughters, two sons

Marie Thérèse Casgrain CC OBE (née Forget; 10 July 1896 – 3 November 1981) was a French-Canadian feminist, reformer, politician and senator. She was a leader in the fight for women's right to vote in the province of Quebec, as well as the first woman to lead a political party in Canada. In her later life she opposed nuclear weapons and was a consumer activist. A strong federalist, one of her last political actions, at age 83, was to intervene on the "No" side in the 1980 Quebec sovereignty referendum.