president of the Quebec wing of the New Democratic Party, the CCF's successor. Casgrain was a CCF candidate in a 1952 federal by-election and in the 1953, 1957, and 1958 federal general elections and a New Democratic Party candidate in the 1962 and 1963 federal general elections. She also used her position as a platform to campaign against the government of Maurice Duplessis. Activism In 1945, Casgrain was successful in ensuring that women in Quebec could receive family allowance cheques in their own name. Prior to that time, and only in Quebec, family allowance cheques were only made out to the father. She also agitated for equal treatment of married women in the Quebec justice system. In the 1960s, she became a campaigner against nuclear weapons, founding in February 1961 the Quebec wing of Voice of Women (VOW) and serving as the national president of VOW from 1962 to 1963. She also was a founder of the La Ligue des droits de l'homme, which in 1978 became the Ligue des droits et libertés, and the Fédération des femmes du Québec. In 1969, Casgrain was elected president of the Consumers' Association of Canada Quebec section. Casgrain succeeded to an anglophone president, David Macfarlane, who considered that the Quebec section's position was indefensible, as it was dominated by anglophone elements and used English as its primary work language. Many members of the association hoped Casgrain would fix this problem as president. Senator and later life Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed Casgrain to the Senate of Canada in 1970, where she sat as an independent for nine months before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. As senator she questioned the prime minister's policy on the use of Canadian-made napalm and defoliants in Vietnam. In 1972, she published her autobiography, A Woman in a Man's World. For the last decade of her life, she was committed to helping the rights of Indigenous women. She also involved herself in charity works and consumer rights. In spite of her inherited wealth, by the end of her life she was financially dependent on her daughters. 1980 Quebec sovereignty referendum During the 1980 Quebec sovereignty referendum, Casgrain campaigned for the "No" side. She was among the voices who criticized Lise Payette, then provincial minister for the status of women, for saying that women who didn't back a "Yes" vote would be responsible for blocking progress. Payette likened