to establish a local branch of the WCTU. The following year, she met with women from across the Northwest Territories to discuss forming a larger union. The Northwest Territories' WCTU was established, which was later renamed the Alberta and Saskatchewan WCTU when they became provinces in 1905. By 1912, the organization had so many members that it split into separate groups for each province. McKinney served as president of the Alberta WCTU for 22 years, from 1908 to 1930. For the same period, she served as vice-president of the Dominion WCTU. In 1930, she was voted president of the Dominion WCTU and organized the 1931 World Convention in Toronto, where she was elected vice-president of the World WCTU. Political career McKinney ran for a seat in the Alberta Legislature for the electoral district of Claresholm in the 1917 general election, the first election in which women were allowed to vote. She defeated Liberal incumbent William Moffat as a candidate for the Non-Partisan League. In winning the election, she became the first woman elected to a legislature in the British Empire. Much of her term in office was focused on working towards more effective prohibition, and she gained a reputation as a capable debater. Together with Henrietta Muir Edwards, she drafted and introduced a motion which ensured widows would receive a portion of their husbands' estate. After passing, it became known as the Dower Act. Several of her fellow Famous Five members, including Parlby, Murphy, and McClung, were supporters of the eugenics movement in Alberta. It is unknown whether McKinney supported mandatory sterilization of "mental defectives", but she advocated for the creation of institutions to prevent the reproduction of feeble-minded people. McKinney also indirectly supported the eugenics movement by promoting stricter immigration laws. She ran for a second term in the 1921 Alberta general election as a member of the United Farmers. She was defeated by independent candidate Thomas Milnes by a margin of 46 votes. Although she never ran for political office again, she remained active and was one of four women, and the only woman from Western Canada, selected to sign the Basis of Union for the United Church of Canada in 1925. Persons Case McKinney was one of the Famous Five, along with Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy and Nellie McClung, a group of five women who fought for the right to be considered "persons" and