Canadian Women: MARGARET

• Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Old Iranian.  It has been an English name since the 11th century, and remained popular throughout the Middle Ages. 

  

  Princess Margaret Rose. 1965
  photo from Wikipedia

  The younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II of England was named Margaret Rose after her birth in August 1930, and her naming is said to have spawned quite a few Margaret Roses throughout the British Commonwealth. Perhaps you or your mother was named for her?                      

Here are some esteemed Canadian women named Margaret (or with similar spellings) who have made significant contributions as writers, artists, or scientists:

Writers

Margaret Atwood, photo from Wikipedia

Margaret Atwood – One of Canada’s most celebrated authors, known for The Handmaid’s Tale and other works exploring feminism, dystopia, and Canadian identity.

Margaret Laurence, Photo from Wikipedia

Margaret Laurence – Renowned novelist best known for The Stone Angel and The Diviners, key works in Canadian literature that explore themes of identity and resilience.

Maggie Siggins – Award-winning journalist and author, recognized for her non-fiction works on Canadian history and Indigenous issues, including Revenge of the Land.

Artists

                                                           

Margaret Watkins – Pioneering Canadian photographer known for her striking black-and-white still-life compositions and early contributions to modernist photography.

Maggie Huculak – A Canadian actress known for her work in theatre, film, and television, with performances in acclaimed productions at the Stratford Festival.

Scientists

Margaret Newton photo from Wikipedia

Margaret Newton – A distinguished plant pathologist whose groundbreaking research on wheat rust in the early 20th century helped secure Canada’s wheat industry.

Margaret-Ann Armour, photo from Wikipedia

Margaret-Ann Armour – A chemist and passionate advocate for women in science, known for her contributions to environmental chemistry and science education.

Margaret Joan Sinclair, photo from Wikipedia

And let us not forget another of the more famous Canadian Margarets... one who has made her own set of noteworthy contributions to Canadian history-- Margaret Joan Sinclair-- known to many of us in a certain generation as Margaret Trudeau... actress, author, married to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the mother of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (she was also the daughter of a member of Parliament, James Sinclair).

    My Great-grandmother (Margaret Flatt, born Fraser) is a significant Margaret in my family. She was born to Scottish immigrant parents in the 1860s in Ontario, studied to be a nurse, and married my Great-grandfather whom I think she met when he was finishing up his MD studies at University of Toronto. She raised my paternal grandmother and her three siblings. They moved to Saskatchewan at the turn of the last Century, (when it was still Rupert's Land, becoming the province of Saskatchewan in 1905) and she, Mrs. C.E. Flatt, became an active part of the Women Grain Growers. (My great-grandfather had dropped out of being a doctor and gone back to farming). She was a suffragist, a colleague to, and friends with Violet NcNaughton and Nelly McClung, and for a couple of terms, the President of the Women Grain Growers. They worked to get the vote for Canadian women, and to make improvements to the lives of rural Canadian women in general.

Her daughters, Jean and my grandmother, Mary, were both strong-minded women who took an active interest in life in ways I will talk about in later posts. 

Thanks for reading and commenting (below) on this Margaret post!   #OCanada