A Great Restlessness

Dorise Nielsen was a pioneering feminist, a radical politician, the first Communist elected to Canada's House of Commons, and the only woman elected in 1940. But her activism came at a high price. As a single mother in Ottawa, she sacrificed a close relationship with her family for her career. As a committed communist, she moved to Mao's China in 1957 and dedicated her life's work to a cause that went seriously awry.