Dorothy Steeves

Born in Amsterdam as the eldest of three children to a Dutch physician and a British teacher, she studied law and economics at Leiden University, receiving a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1916.^[1] She then briefly worked at private practices in Amsterdam and The Hague before joining a Dutch government rationing bureau as legal adviser during World War I.^[1] She married Rufus Palmer Steeves, an officer in the Canadian Army, and came to Vancouver, British Columbia in January 1919.^[3] She worked at the Dutch consulate for a short time, and served on the Point Grey Town Planning Commission between 1926 and 1929.^[1]

After an unsuccessful run as a CCF candidate in Vancouver-Point Grey in the 1933 provincial election,^[4]: 179 she won a 1934 by-election triggered by the death of Harley Anderson, and became member of the provincial legislature for North Vancouver.^{[1][4]: 181} She was re-elected in 1937 and 1941, then lost to John Henry Cates in 1945.^{[1][4]: 187, 197, 207} She tried to re-enter the provincial legislature by running in a 1946 by-election in Vancouver-Point Grey,^[4]: 210 the 1952 and 1953 provincial elections in her old riding of North Vancouver,^{[4]: 227, 249} and a 1956 by-election in Vancouver Centre,^[4]: 264 but was unsuccessful in all attempts. She also ran federally as a CCF candidate in Burnaby—Richmond in 1949,^[5] and for the New Democratic Party (successor to the CCF) in Vancouver Quadra in 1963,^[6] but was defeated both times.

Away from the legislature, Steeves served in CCF executives at the provincial and federal levels,^[3] including as vice-president for the BC CCF's provincial council in 1949, and as provincial council president in 1950.^[1] She wrote The Compassionate Rebel: Ernest E. Winch and his times, published in 1960, and Builders and Rebels: A short History of the CCF from 1932 to 1961.^[3] She died on May 9, 1978.^[7][8]