Wilson, Cairine Reay Mackay (1885–1962)

Canadian Liberal politician. Wilson was appointed as the country's first woman senator in 1930 by Prime Minister King only four months after the ruling in the ‘Persons Case’, which qualified women to sit in the Senate. As a senator, Wilson worked in the areas of divorce and immigration. She became Canada's first woman delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1949 and the first woman to chair a Senate standing committee (on immigration and labour). She was also chair of the Canadian National Committee on Refugees. For her work with refugee children, she was given the honour of Knight of the Legion of Honour (France) in 1950.

Cairine Reay Mackay was born in Montréal. She was steeped in politics: as a child she spent a great deal of time travelling with her Liberal senator father, family friends were politicians, and in 1909 she married a Liberal member of Parliament.