Canadian author, columnist, journalist, and politician
This article is about the Canadian author, columnist, journalist, and politician. For the great witch of Balwearie, an important figure during the great Scottish witchcraft panic of 1597, see Margaret Aitken (the great witch of Balwearie).
She started with the Toronto Telegram in 1938 and was a foreign correspondent. She was noted for covering the birth of Israel as a nation and she became a strong supporter of the Jewish state.[1] In 1953, she wrote a book Hey Ma! I Did It (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company) about her political campaign in the same year.
In 1957 she became the first woman to be appointed chair of a parliamentary committee, the Standing Committee on Standing Orders. The committee discusses rules of the House.[2] She was re-elected in 1957 and 1958. She was defeated in 1962 by 662 votes.
Later life
In 1962, Aitken was appointed as Canada's representative to the UN's Commission on Human Rights.[3] She died at age 72 after a long illness.