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Tom Monto

James Litterick Winnipeg Communist MLA

James Litterick (1901-?)


James Litterick was elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 1936. He was elected to one of Winnipeg's ten seats, the seats filled through STV proportional representation.


Independent Stubbs led the polls in the election. Litterick was second, being popular in the working-class North End and among Jewish voters. (Litterick's wife was Jewish.)


Stubbs had more than quota (the minimum required to take a seat). He was declared elected and on the second count, his surplus votes were transferred away. Litterick received enough votes from him to be declared elected.


A speech he gave in 1937 was published as the pamphlet Whither Manitoba?.


He held the seat until his party, the Communist Party of Canada, was declared illegal in 1940. He went into hiding but was found and put into prison.


He was released in 1942, after the Soviet Russia had come into the war on the Allies' side and the Communist Party was no longer a threat, although its people continued to operate under the Labour Progressive Party label.


Litterick's whereabouts after the war are unknown. His disappearance has been the cause of speculation.


Some have said they suspect he was a spy working for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and that he was killed as a traitor during the war by members of the Communist Party.


It might also be that he was bumped off by rightist fanatics.


Thanks for reading.

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