Idola Saint-Jean

ldola Saint-Jean was born in Montreal in 1880. She became a French language teacher and later strove to gain the vote for women in Quebec provincial elections. She helped found the Provincial Franchise Committee in 1922, and upon splitting with it, founded "l'Alliance canadienne pour le vote des femmes du Québec." She also protested women's inequality before the law. At that time, Quebec women were not even allowed to control their own bank accounts. In 1930 she shattered tradition by running in a federal election. Saint-Jean took many trips to Quebec City to persuade provincial legislators to grant women the vote, though she suffered much rude behaviour in the process. This right was finally granted in 1940. The stamp design is the work of Muriel Wood, and is based on portraits of this remarkable women, along with vignette symbolic of her sphere of feminist activity. Thus, the design for the ldola Saint-Jean stamp show the Legislative Buildings of Quebec. The typographic design is by Dennis Goddard.