Cora Hind (1861 – 1942)

Cora Hind was a women's rights activist, author and Canada's first woman journalist. Born in Toronto, her parents died when she was very young and she and her brothers were raised by their paternal grandfather. Hind moved to Winnipeg in 1882, and soon after, motivated by her dream to become a journalist, requested a job from the editor of the Manitoba Free Press (later the Winnipeg Free Press). He refused her but later published one of her articles anonymously. With neither experience nor credentials, Hind took a job as a typist, later opening her own typing bureau while continuing to submit articles, some of which were published. In 1895, she became a correspondent for eastern newspapers, and in 1901, the Manitoba Free Press hired her as their agricultural reporter. She was renowned for the accuracy of her crop estimates. An active suffragist, she joined the Women's Institutes movement and in 1912, helped found the political equality league.

“Those of us of the old new West [. . .] when we set out alone on ‘the longest trail of all’ will ‘go west’ with great content…”