Dorise Nielsen

Dorise Nielsen
Born	July 30, 1902 England
Died	December 9, 1980(1980-12-09) (aged 78) Beijing, China
Nationality	Canadian
Occupation(s)	politician, feminist and teacher

Dorise Winifred Webber Nielsen (July 30, 1902 – December 9, 1980) was a Canadian communist politician, feminist and teacher.

Biography

Before politics

Born in England, Nielsen arrived in Canada and settled in Saskatchewan in 1927 to work as a teacher and married a homesteader the same year.

Political career

She joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in 1934 and was a CCF campaign manager during the 1938 provincial election. By 1937, she joined the Communist Party of Canada but did not disclose her membership until 1943 remaining a member of the CCF until her riding association was dissolved because of its support of a popular front campaign with the Communists.

She was the first member of the Communist Party of Canada to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons, serving during World War II. She was the third woman elected to Canadian Parliament and the first to still be raising young children while holding political office. She won a seat in the 1940 federal election representing the Saskatchewan riding of North Battleford on the "United Progressives" label, beating the Liberal candidate in a two-way race. Canada banned the Communist Party in June 1940 due to the party's opposition to the war. Nielsen, through indirect contact with Montreal-based Communist leaders who had escaped imprisonment, became a spokeswoman for the Communist Party through speeches made in the House of Commons.

When the Labor-Progressive Party was officially formed in 1943 as a legal front for the still banned Communist Party, Nielsen declared her affiliation with the party and was elected to its national executive committee. She ran for re-election in the 1945 election for the Labor-Progressive Party (the name the Communist Party would use until 1959), but came in third behind the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and Liberal candidates with 13% of the vote.

She ran again in the 1953 election, this time in Brantford, Ontario, but came in last place with 216 votes.

After politics

In 1957, Nielsen left Canada for the People's Republic of China, where she lived until her death, working most of that time as an editor for the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing.

Election results

1953 Canadian federal election: Brantford
Party	Candidate	Votes
	Liberal	James Elisha Brown	9,576
	Progressive Conservative	John Tozeland Shillington	7,912
	Co-operative Commonwealth	John Houison Gillies	3,839
	Labor–Progressive	Dorise Winifred Nielsen	216

1945 Canadian federal election: North Battleford
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Frederick W. Townley-Smith	5,049	31.55
	Liberal	John Hornby Harrison	4,420	27.62	–15.22
	Labor–Progressive	Dorise W. Nielsen	2,124	13.27	–43.89
	Progressive Conservative	Albert C. Cadieu	2,039	12.74
	Social Credit	John William Evanishen	1,525	9.53
	Liberal	Cameron Ross McIntosh	847	5.29	–37.55
Total valid votes			16,004	100.0
	Co-operative Commonwealth gain from Unity		Swing		+23.38

1940 Canadian federal election: North Battleford
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unity	Dorise W. Nielsen	10,500	57.16
	Liberal	Cameron Ross McIntosh	7,868	42.84	–2.23
Total valid votes			18,368	100.0
	Unity gain from Liberal		Swing		+29.70

References

• Faith Johnston (2006). A great restlessness. Univ of Manitoba Press. ISBN 978-0-88755-690-6.
• Faith Johnston: The Communists, the CCF and the Popular Front, Seventh Annual Robert S. Kenny Prize Lecture, May, 2007
• Dorise Nielsen
• Dorise Nielsen – Parliament of Canada biography