A Cause to Fight For

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The powerful story of a young girl who fights for women to gain voting rights in World War I–era British Columbia.It’s the summer of 1916, and everything is changing for fifteen-ye ar-old Jess Goldie as the Great War rages in Europe. Jess joins her older sister in a suffrage campaign, discovering an exciting cause to fight for. Based on actual historic events, the Goldie sisters knock on doors in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, urging male voters to support a referendum on the women’s franchise at the September provincial election. Jess’s best friend Lily Gee challenges racial prejudices within the suffrage movement, while Davie Bolton, the neighbourhood bully, tries to undermine the efforts of the cause. Will Miller, the boy Jess likes, argues against women in politics. Labour rights and the women’s vote are connected as Jess will learn when she starts part-time work at a steam laundry to help her family. By election day, September 14, the suffrage campaign—and the Great War— will leave their mark, forever changing Jess and everyone around her. Show more