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Dorothy Steeves
Canadian politician (1891-1978) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Dorothy Gretchen Steeves (née Biersteker; May 26, 1891 – May 9, 1978) was a Dutch-born political figure in British Columbia, Canada. A founding member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF),[2] she represented North Vancouver in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 1934 to 1945. Her interests included civil liberties, international affairs, nuclear disarmament, protection of animals, women's issues and abolition of capital punishment.[2]
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Born in Amsterdam as the eldest of three children to a Dutch physician and a British teacher, she studied law and economics at Leiden University, receiving a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1916.[1] She then briefly worked at private practises in Amsterdam and The Hague before joining a Dutch government rationing bureau as legal adviser during World War I.[1] She married Rufus Palmer Steeves, an officer in the Canadian Army, and came to Vancouver, British Columbia in January 1919.[3] She worked at the Dutch consulate for a short time, and served on the Point Grey Town Planning Commission between 1926 and 1929.[1]
After an unsuccessful run as a CCF candidate in Vancouver-Point Grey in the 1933 provincial election,[4]: 179 she won a 1934 by-election triggered by the death of Harley Anderson, and became member of the provincial legislature for North Vancouver.[1][4]: 181 She was re-elected in 1937 and 1941, then lost to John Henry Cates in 1945.[1][4]: 187, 197, 207 She tried to re-enter the provincial legislature by running in a 1946 by-election in Vancouver-Point Grey,[4]: 210 the 1952 and 1953 provincial elections in her old riding of North Vancouver,[4]: 227, 249 and a 1956 by-election in Vancouver Centre,[4]: 264 but was unsuccessful in all attempts. She also ran federally as a CCF candidate in Burnaby—Richmond in 1949,[5] and for the New Democratic Party (successor to the CCF) in Vancouver Quadra in 1963,[6] but was defeated both times.
Away from the legislature, Steeves served in CCF executives at the provincial and federal levels,[3] including as vice-president for the BC CCF's provincial council in 1949, and as provincial council president in 1950.[1] She wrote The Compassionate Rebel: Ernest E. Winch and his times, published in 1960, and Builders and Rebels: A short History of the CCF from 1932 to 1961.[3] She died on May 9, 1978.[7][8]
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