<P> Women's suffrage in Canada occurred at different times in different jurisdictions . By the close of 1918, all the Canadian provinces except Quebec had granted full suffrage to women . Municipal suffrage was granted in 1884 to property - owning widows and spinsters in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario; in 1886, in the province of New Brunswick, to all property - owning women except those whose husbands were voters; in Nova Scotia, in 1886; and in Prince Edward Island, in 1888, to property - owning widows and spinsters . In 1916, full suffrage was given to women in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia . Women in Quebec did not receive full suffrage until 1940 . </P> <P> The cause of women's suffrage began in 1867, Canadian Confederation year, when Dr. Emily Stowe came to Toronto to practise medicine . She was the first, and for many years the sole woman physician in Canada . Stowe, vitally interested in all matters relating to women, at once came before the public as a lecturer upon topics then somewhat new, "Woman's Sphere" and "Women in the Professions," being her subjects . She lectured not only in Toronto, but, under the auspices of various Mechanics' Institutes, in Ottawa, Whitby, and Bradford . After attending a meeting of the American Society for the Advancement of Women, in Cleveland in 1877, and meeting many women of the United States, Stowe, on returning home, felt that the time had arrived for some similar union among Canadian women . Talking it over with her friend, Helen Archibald, they decided that it would not be politic to attempt at once a suffrage association but, in November 1877, organized what was known as "The Toronto Woman's Literary Club". </P> <P> During the next five years, this club made phenomenal growth, adding to its ranks such woman as Mary McDonell (WCTU), Mrs. W.B. Hamilton, Mrs. W.I. Mackenzie, Mrs. J. Austin Shaw, besides others . It also called forth a surprising amount of attention from the press . Among the most able assistants from its very inception was Sarah Anne Curzon, for several years associate editor of the Canada Citizen . It was the habit of the club to meet each Thursday at 3 p.m., at one of the members homes . Though not avowedly a suffrage society, no opportunity was lost of promoting this basic idea of the founders . One of the earliest efforts in this direction was a paper, by Archibald, entitled "Woman Under the Civil Law," which elicited discussion and served as an educator . During these years, too, mainly through the work of the Woman's Literary Club, the University of Toronto, was opened to women . Eliza Balmer was the first female student . </P>

When did the suffrage movement began in canada