Winnipeg's STV city elections 1920-1939- who did they elect?

(see "Winnipeg city election 1940-1990" for the continuation of this blog)

Franchise in Winnipeg was based on property ownership. Those who held property in more than one ward were given multiple votes in municipal elections, while those without property were not allowed to vote. Citizen argued that a person should have a financial stake in the affairs of the city before getting to vote.69 Both the ILP and the CPC were strong proponents of the universal franchise. In 1934, Penner and James Simpkin (an ILP alderman) worked together in an attempt to prevent non-resident property owners from voting.70

When the ILP put forward a motion that would have established a “one man-one vote” system, Penner voted in favour, but it was defeated when Mayor Webb cast the tie-breaking vote.71 In 1935, the ILP once again pursued electoral reform and was successful in passing, with the cooperation of the communists, a motion to bring the universal franchise to municipal elections. This reform, however, was blocked by the provincial government, which had the right to veto changes to the city’s charter. A move to eliminate property restrictions on voting would have affected working-class parties the most as it was their potential supporters who were denied the right to vote. Roughly thirty thousand additional working class individuals would have been added to the voters’ list had the reforms been implemented.72

Yet, it is peculiar that the Communist Party put so much effort into reforming a system that they believed to be corrupt. Attempts to extend the franchise suggest a willingness to accept the “bourgeois democracy” that the Party was so critical of during the Third Period. Once again, this is an example of practical co-operation between two parties that were theoretically supposed to be bitter enemies during the Third Period. Despite rhetoric describing the ILP as social fascists, Penner and Forkin worked closely with them on electoral reform, pushing a policy that may not have made sense for a revolutionary party but that would have empowered their local constituency.

(Epp, Fighting...)

For a good portion of the 1900s, Winnipeg used STV to elect its city councillors and its MLAs. The STV elections in almost all cases produced mixed roughly proportional representation in the district, whether a city-wide district or multiple-member ward or multiple-member provincial district. In the few cases where a single party made a full sweep of the seats in a district, it was due to the party having an overwhelming proportion of the votes.

STV was used to elect Winnipeg city councillors from 1920 to 1971 and Winnipeg MLAs from 1920 to 1953. School board trustees were also elected through STV. Mayors and single MLAs elected through by-elections were elected through Alternative Voting, which like STV used ranked balloting. The difference between AV and STV is that in STV multiple members are elected, securing representation of many groups, while in AV only a single member is elected, securing representation by the majority. In both systems, a voter casts only a single vote, but one that is transferable.

In the 1920s in Winnipeg, there were two main parties - the Independent Labour Party and the Citizens League (a businessmen's front), and Capital-Labour animosity was strong with voters often voting along party lines.

There is no list of Winnipeg city elections online or apparently even from the Winnipeg City Archives. Here's my attempt to fill the gap with highlights where known.

Winnipeg's STV City Elections

Mayors elected on annual basis until 1955, then every two years to 1972.

Mayors elected using Alternative Voting, 1920-1970.

From 1906 to 1920 Winnipeg elected two aldermen in each of seven wards.

Four more seats added before the 1920 election, and the number of wards dropped to three.

So starting in 1920, 18 councillors represented three six-member wards.

Three councillors were up for election each year in "staggered" elections and they were elected through STV.

(Elections of dates noted below is the year the election took place (usually held in December or November). The term of office of councillors elected started the first of the next calendar year.)

The 1910s was a period of rising power of women and labour. It was also a time of growing clamour for electoral reform, the adoption of proportional representation to replace First Past The Post and Block Voting.

Manitoba's 1920 election was the first general election where women could vote, proportional representation (STV) was used (at least in Winnipeg) for the first time, and Labour got the most seats to that date. STV and Labour's growing appeal to self-recognized workers also ensured that the 1920 election marked the start of a period where Labour (under the labels Independent Labour Party, CCF and NDP) would never be without representation in the Manitoba Legislature.

The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike had a big footprint on Winnipeg civic politics. Over its one-and-a-half-month duration, there was great class friction, violence and property damage, lost wages and lost profits.

So there was great bitterness and class anger following the Strike.

STV was then brought in as a way to smooth the waters and prevent one side or the other side of the Capital-versus Labour confrontation to feel betrayed by a lopsided election. It may have also been brought in as way to keep Labour from winning power accidentally due to the erratic Block Voting system.

STV also secured the election of a woman city councillor, a first for Winnipeg.

The drive for pro-rep, women's political equality and social justice for labour became intertwined at the time of WWI and the tumultuous years that followed.

Women's suffrage

Manitoba had been the first province in Canada to grant most adult women the right to vote. By tradition as well, those who could vote provincially were allowed to vote federally as well.

(Treaty Indians of both genders were barred from voting until 1952.)

The drive to secure women's suffrage had been a long one. The movement had started in the 1870s, and 1890s had seen the founding of the first suffrage organization, one based on Icelandic women who had had the vote in the old country. (The Canadian Encyclopedia: "Women's Suffrage in Manitoba")

Manitoba women won the right to vote in provincial elections in 1916. They were the first in Canada to win the right. (They had been able to vote in municipal elections since 1887 and for school board trustees since 1890.) (Canadian Encyclopedia: "Women's Suffrage in Manitoba")

The first provincial election held after Manitoba women's suffrage was won was not held until 1920. Meanwhile women in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario also won the vote.

Manitoba, instead of being the first, was the fourth province to hold a provincial election where women could vote. Alberta in 1917, Saskatchewan in 1917 and Ontario in 1919 held provincial elections before Manitoba. (See my blog on "Timeline of first general provincial elections where women could vote and run")

Alberta and Saskatchewan elected women MLAs before Manitoba's 1920 provincial election.

Labour

Before WWI, the business side of the social equation had pretty much its own way.

Industrial tycoon Thomas Russ Deacon was the purest form of anti-union strikebreaking employer in Winnipeg - and the most hated.

As owner of the Manitoba Bridge and Iron Works, and the Manitoba Steel and Iron Company, and the vice-president of the Manitoba Rolling Mill Company, he held the livelihoods of thousands of workers in his control. His adamant resistance to collective bargaining by his metal trades employees led to the Winnipeg General Strike. But before the war he was popular, being elected mayor in 1913 and 1914.

Workers working for him and other across the city began to assert their rights during WWI and immediately after the war.

And Deacon used under-handed means to resist their demands. In 1917 he employed a private-detective agency to supply strikebreakers from Montreal. His string-pulling produced an anti-picketing injunction against strikers, and he also sued a striking union for damages.

The heightened strike actions during the war also produced political successes for the labour movement. Winnipeg at the time was the third largest city in Canada and was the major city of the Prairies. Its large industries and railway workshops employed thousands. Winnipeg Labour had had its first success in 1896 when Arthur Puttee was elected MP as a candidate of the Winnipeg Labour Party. He was re-elected in 1900 but not in 1904.

Winnipeg socialists left Winnipeg's Labour Party and joined the Socialist Party of Canada.

In 1906 the MLP joined with other groups to form the Independent Labour Party. (from Wikipedia: "Winnipeg Labour Party")

But

Labour in city government

From McCormak "Radical Politics in Winnipeg, 1895-1915" (MHS) :

1906 city election ILP nominated W. H. Popham and Ed McCann to contest two north end wards. Running on platforms which emphasized the "gas and water" socialism so dear to the hearts of British workers, they suffered the usual fate of labour candidates in such contests. In addition to the workers' ordinary reluctance to cast a class ballot, municipal candidates were hampered by the franchise which, based on property ownership, excluded a significant proportion of workmen from the vote. [39]

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At the provincial level,

provincial election in the spring of 1907, the labour party nominated Kempton McKim, president of the trades council, in the constituency of West Winnipeg, which contained a substantial number of labour voters centred on the CPR shops. McKim's campaign emphasized labour standards legislation, which was badly needed in Manitoba, and public ownership of utilities. Much to Puttee's chagrin, the Liberals nominated Tom Johnson, a popular reformer, against McKim. Johnson won.

(SPC nominated J. D. Houston to contest the federal General Election of October, 1908. his straight-up socialist campaign got remarkably many votes but still scant 12 percent of vote.

1910 Manitoba Labour Party formed

1910 prov election by MLP brought Dixon in from Brandon to run in Winniepg Cenre, a disrtrict full of cheap boardinghouses. He had <liberal party support. SPC ran W.S. Cumming sagaint him, neither won.

Labour had its first provincial success in Manitoba in 1914 with the election of Fred Dixon to the Manitoba Legislature. He would retain the seat for nine years.

Dixon had come close to being elected in the 1910 provincial election but vote spitting between him and a SPC candidate created by the First Past The Post system had denied him victory on that occasion.

Labour in Manitoba was already by 1914 showing its willingness to compete with Business and its politicians. Dixon was not the only one to try for a provincial seat on behalf of Labour in 1914. There were also two Labour Representation League candidates, in Assiniboia and Elmwood. Taras Ferley, later a Labour councillor on the Winnipeg city council, ran in the Mountain district. Ferley's 1914 platform included calls for total Prohibition, Direct Legislation, universal suffrage, proportional representation, Single Tax and "an equitable and proportionate rate of interest" on loans. (Grain Growers Guide, March 3, 1914)

At the city level, Labour had its first victory in 1916 with the election of John Queen to the city council. (He may not have been the first but I can't find evidence of anyone earlier.) Queen served on this body representing Ward Five until 1921.

The appearance of Dixon and other "third party" candidates in 1914 presaged later developments when farmers and workers in such bodies as Independent Labour Party, the CCF and the NDP would play larger role in elections.

Electoral Reform

Fred Dixon, Labour MLA 1914-1922, was a strong supporter of electoral reform. He wrote and gave lectures in its favour, even coming to Edmonton to speak on STV.

He was also a fan of Direct Legislation. This has three facets:

- Initiative, where citizens can force a government to adopt legislation or at least bring it to a referendum,

- Referendum, where legislation passed by a government must be approved by referendum, and

- Recall, where citizens can force the resignation of an elected representative.

Dixon held up democratic Switzerland as a shining success of DL. But Direct Legislation was a flimsy way of representing the will of the people according to some.

Joseph H. Andrews Langback, Saskatchewan wrote in the pages of the Grain Growers Guide magazine that Dixon was wrong to pursue DL. He wrote that Direct Legislation was not an effective means of controlling government and quoted Lord Asquith in Britain speaking against it. He pointed out that Switzerland was actually seldom using it by 1912. (GGG, July 24, 1912)

Six years after Andrews wrote that, Switzerland adopted proportional representation as a better means to control its government democratically. And places in Canada would do likewise within a few years.

In 1912, the Grain Growers Guide devoted much space to discussion of electoral reform and proportional representation.

In 1912, it carried a series of articles, a sort of STV for beginners, written by Torontonian Robert Tyson. Toronto had parted with FPTP at least temporarily in the early 1900s adopting Cumulative Voting and Limited Voting in various elections at the city and provincial level. (see my blog "Variety of electoral systems used in Canada's past")

A civil servant in Ottawa, Ronald Hooper, also wrote on STV and made a name for himself as an authority on pro-rep. By 1919 he was editor of a Winnipeg newspaper and helped the campaign for STV. He was thus on the scene to give advice when the Labour-Capital confrontation in Winnipeg produced a need for a different sort of election.

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Electoral system in Winnipeg city elections did need reform

Aldermanic:

election of councillors in seven two-member wards, conducted using Block Voting

only half the seats up for election this year.

Election was by Block Voting where one voting block could take all the seats in a ward.

As well Plural voting by property owners was allowed where a property owner could vote in any ward where own property. This meant atht some had seven votes while others just had one vote. It took Communist city councillor Penner to fight this in the 1930s.

It could be also why city had wards instead of city-wide district as was used in provincial elections.

The Board of Control dealt with all financial matters and generally managed the affairs of the City in the early years of Winnipeg from 1907 to just after 1918 election.

======================

1918 city election

Even before Winnipeg's famous General Strike, the 1918 city election had shown Labour's popularity and effectiveness at the polls.

More Labourites were elected than candidates of the Citizens' League business slate.

Councillors elected in 1918:

3 Citizens League: Herbert Gray, John Sparling, John Sullivan

4 Labour: A.A. Heaps, E. Robinson, William Simpson, J.L. Wiginton.

But Labour did not have dominance in the council chambers because there were many Citizens League aldermen elected the previous year who were continuing in office. But if Labour could again take four seats in the 1919 election, Labour would have control of city hall.

Winnipeg switched its city government system in 1919. A referendum in December 1918 proved voters' desire to abolish the Board of Control.

-----------------------------

In the meantime, the summer of 1919 was to be a time of heated Labour-Capital confrontation.

The Winnipeg General Strike, which lasted almost two months, was the signal event of the summer. As labour actions go, it was the biggest in the history of Canada.

Many strikers and demonstrators were shot by RCMP and Business-equipped "special constables" on Bloody Saturday, June 21, 1919. Mike Sokolowski was killed on the spot. Mike Schezerbanowicz died later from his wounds. There was great confusion and some strikers wondered if there were not more than two killed as some friends were never seen again after that day.

The violence of the day plus the imposition of martial law, put an end to the strike. But the Capital-Labour animosity was not quelled, and Labour turned to their vote to effect change impossible to attain through direct action.

The 1919 Winnipeg city election was to be held just months after the end of the General Strike. The next provincial election would not be until the next summer.

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Winnipeg police and the General Strike

Donald MacPherson, who had been police chief since 1911, was replaced during the strike. The businessmen's political party, the Citizens Committee, had been appealing for more active measures to be taken against strikers since the strike started. On June 12 the police chief and all but 15 of Winnipeg's police officers were fired, and replaced by a new chief and special constables hired and equipped by the Citizens Committee. MacPherson moved to the new community of Pine Falls that was developing around a paper mill being built on the Winnipeg River. He took up job of Chief of Police there.

Christopher Newton took over as police chief from MacPherson and oversaw the organization of the special constables. He stayed on as police chief until the depths of the Depression. Newton held the post until June 1934 when he was involved in a car accident and assaulted the other driver. He was replaced by the head of the Manitoba Provincial Police. ( ("Memorable Manitobans" website; Masters, The Winnipeg General Strike, p. 96; Calgary Herald, July 17, 1934)

Newton's continued occupancy of the post as long as that probably was due to Labour never holding dominance on city council. The proportional representation produced by STV prevented the sort of accidental election results that might have secured Labour's dominance - and Newton's dismissal.

Eight leaders of the strike were arrested and charged with being involved with a seditious conspiracy. Rev. Ivens, Russell, Johns, Alderman Queen, Heaps, Pritchard, Armstrong and Bray were put on trial. All except Heaps were sentenced to prison time. Other leaders, the ones of Ukrainian ancestry, were escorted into detention camps without such public trials.

====================Dixon ? ========

After release from prison, most of the seven stayed in Winnipeg and had illustrious careers in politics representing the working people. Their names will pop up here and there later in the chronology. Here are highlights of their political careers.

While awaiting trial, Queen was re-elected to the Winnipeg city council in the 1919 city election. (Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 29, 1919) The following year he was sentenced to one year in prison. While in prison, he was elected Member of the Manitoba Legislature, in 1920 as Social Democratic Party MLA, He was re-elected as Independent Workers candidate then as an ILP candidate. Later he was elected mayor of Winnipeg seven different times as well.

Armstrong, Ivens and Heaps were also elected to provincial seats in the 1920 provincial election, Armstrong as SPC MLA, the other two for the Dominion Labour Party.

(Robert Russell ran as SPC candidate in the 1920 provincial election but was not successful. He served as secretary of the One Big Union into the late 1940s.

The three others left Manitoba politics. Bray became a OBU organizer. William Pritchard moved to BC and eventually became mayor of Burnaby and led that city in socialist initiatives during the Great Depression. Johns returned to his career as a teacher. (D.C. Master, The Winnipeg General Strike, p. 148-150)

Another strike leader, J.S. Woodsworth, had also been arrested but charges had been dropped. His career would benefit the most from the strike. He was elected to the House of Commons in the next federal election and held a Winnipeg seat until his death in 1942.

1919 City election

It was reported that the 1919 election campaign was "the most strenuous in the city's history, strike issues always holding the centre of the stage." Some candidates even referred to the election as "the second round of the strike"

The heat of the election is shown by the fact that 28,000 Winnipeg voters voted in this election compared to only 13,000 the previous year. (Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 29, 1919)

And the vote count was more than triple the previous year's. Winnipeg used plural voting at this time, where a property owner could vote in as many ward(s) he or she owned property. Thus potentially, a single person could cast seven votes for mayor and cast a vote in seven different wards for an aldermanic candidate. Absentee property-owners were brought in from as far away as Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. And more than 35,000 votes were cast. (Calgary Herald, Nov. 29, 1919)

Thousands of women voted. Charge made that many thousands more were disenfranchised by a blunder of the municipal election officials, but this was denied.

The Labour candidates promised, if elected to a majority on council, to reinstate all civic employees who had lost their jobs during the strike. A Winnipeg newspaperman noted that this would have meant the throwing out of employment of more than 150 returned soldiers. Labour also promised to exempt from taxation homes valued at $3000 or less, and to give the right to civic employees to affiliate with any organization they saw fit. (Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 29, 1919)

The re-election of Citizens' mayor and election of four Citizens' League aldermen meant that the Citizens' group had a majority on the city council. But the closeness of the vote and the result on council, where Business and Labour were almost evenly matched, and the closeness of the vote for mayor meant that "similar issues would again have to be fought," as the newspaper prophesied.

During the election campaign, Woodsworth, at the time facing a charge of seditious libel, said "If the government wants to bring on a revolution, let them go on as they are egoing."

The un-ending Capital-Labour confrontation was calmed by the introduction of STV, as we see.

Labour won two seats on the school board. Added to two continuing from previous year, this gave Labour only four seats out of 14 seats on the board.

The Edmonton Bulletin editorialized a couple days later that "sane citizenship" held the majority in city council only by virtue of holding the mayor's seats. And the writer was alarmed by the realization that a shift of only 1500 votes out of 28,000 would have elected the Labour mayoral candidate or an Labour alderman and thus produced a Labour majority.

In that case, "another general strike at an early date" would have been "practically a certainty." And the city government would have been "in the hands of the OBU and would be used to enforce the orders and re-enforce the authority of the strike committee or soviet."

The writer sought to alarm the reader by saying the Labour leadership and the One Big Union actually had in mind to take office for the purpose to destroy the property-owning rights of the property owners including the working property owners who own their own homes, and to reduce the wages for skilled and specialized workers down to the level of hourly wages for unskilled workers. (Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 29, 1919)

1919 Winnipeg City election

Mayor: Charles Gray

He was re-elected -- he had been mayor already one year at the time.

"Heading the Citizens' law-and-order forces" as a writer put it, Gray got 3000 more votes than Labour's man Seymour Farmer. So vote tallies being something like Gray 15,000, Farmer 12,000. (Farmer would later serve as mayor 1923-24 and as councillor 1928-1929.) (Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 29, 1919)

Gray served as mayor 1919-1920.

Seymour Farmer was the ILP's mayoral candidate. He was moderate compared to the first person considered for the role.

That was Reverend Ivens. Ivens was probably in jail at the time. He had been arrested on 17 June 1919 during the General Strike, found guilty of seditious conspiracy on March 28, 1920 and sentenced to one year. He was elected in the 1920 provincial election and was re-elected in 1922, 1927 and 1932. He ran but was unsuccessful in 1937 and 1941 provincial elections as well.

Aldermanic:

election of councillors in seven two-member wards, conducted using Block Voting

only half the seats up for election this year.

Seven aldermen elected in 1919:

4 Citizens: Davidson, Fisher, Fowler (re-elected Ward 2), Sullivan

3 Labour: Blumberg (elected in Ward 6), Queen (re-elected although awaiting trial on charges arising from the General Strike), Jones

Ward 1:

Ward 2 Sitting alderman Frank Fowler elected, defeating Labour candidate, schoolteacher F.G. Tipping.

Ward 3

Ward 4: Davidson won, defeating radical labourman Thomas Flye (Flye was elected after adoption of STV. More on him below.)

Ward 5:

Ward 6: Labour John Blumberg re-elected.

Ward 7: Labour Herbert Jones defeated Ald. Alex. McLennan. McLennan was experienced in municipal affairs and the Citizen's League regretted his loss. (This is an example of the accidental loss of experienced politicians that happens under FPTP.)

Councillors elected in 1918, continuing in office:

3 Citizens League: Herbert Gray, John Sparling, John Sullivan

4 Labour: A.A. Heaps, E. Robinson, William Simpson, J.L. Wiginton.

After 1919 election, city council was tied between the Citizens League (representing the business interests) and Labour, but the mayor, Charles Gray, was of the Citizens' League and could vote in case of tie.

Three Labour elected

Herbert Jones (Little is known about him.)

John Queen (lived 1882-1946)

On council 1916-1921 (although often he is said to have served on council only 1916-1919, as he served a year in prison 1920/21 and came out of prison with much of his attention devoted to his work as MLA, to which he had been elected while in prison.

Labour/CCF mayor 1935-1936, 1938-1942.

He was one for doing two jobs at the same time. In the 1930s/1940s for seven years he was both Winnipeg mayor and Winnipeg MLA.

He served as Labour/CCF MLA 1920-1940 and Labour/CCF mayor 1935-1936, 1938-1942.

(see Brian McKillop, “The Socialist as Citizen: John Queen and the Mayoralty of Winnipeg, 1935,” Manitoba Historical Society Transactions Series 3 (1973–1974), p. 6.

Born Scotland. Came to Winnipeg in 1906.

He married Katherine Ross (1885-1934) in 1908. She, like John, held strong political views. She opposed conscription in 1917. After WWI she organized the Labor Women of Greater Winnipeg, which lobbied for birth control clinics and equal opportunities for women. In early 1930s she represented the Winnipeg West-End Independent Labor Party at a Calgary conference that called for “the socialization of economic life in the country.”

Pre-WWI, John Queen was SDP leader. A socialist but along the lines of the reformist liberalism of John Stuart Mills.

J.S. Mills advocated for proportional representation. His 1861 book Considerations on Representative Government calls for reform of British Parliament, through adoption of proportional representation (the Single Transferable Voting) and universal adult suffrage.

Queen led the ILP after Dixon's resignation in 1923 after tragic death of wife and two of his kids. During Queen's time as leader the party only elected three MLAs - himself, Rev. Ivens and Seymour Farmer, all in Winnipeg, in 1927.

In 1932 another ILP-er, Hyman, joined them in the Legislature.

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ILP overall

From Wikipedia John Queen:

Canada's labour movement experienced several setbacks in the late 1920s, and the ILP was not an especially strong electoral force during Queen's time as leader. Only three party members were elected in 1927, all from Winnipeg —Queen, William Ivens and Seymour Farmer. The party did better in 1932, winning four seats in Winnipeg (electing Ivens, Farmer, Hyman and Queen) and Harold Lawrence (ILP) taking St. Boniface.

The party made little headway beyond Winnipeg. It remained a relatively small opposition group.

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Peel PP search for john Queen Winnipeg proportional 1916-1923 yielded 8 results,

none of them concern him calling for PR

Edmonton Bulletin, July 21, 1922 "Dixon and Jacobs in lead in prov election"

Ponoka Herald July 8, 1920 prov. election final results (3 Liberals - Stovel, Rogers, Cameron elected)

Edmonton Bulletin, July 3, 1920 timeline of candidates declared elected in vote count of prov election

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Select biographies

John "Jack" Blumberg (lived 1892-1961)

On council 1920-(1950) ? (1950)-1956

He was Jewish (He was not first Jew on council though - that was Moses Finkelstein in 1905-6.)

Born in Hull, England in 1892, Jack Blumberg came to Winnipeg in 1910. He worked as a streetcar motorman from 1912 until 1919, when he was elected to city council as a member of the Independent Labour Party. During WWI, he served overseas in the King’s Rifles. He served on the council almost continuously until his death, being defeated only in 1950 by Garnet Coulter, having served what was believed to be the longest period of time on city council.

As Acting Mayor of Winnipeg in 1933, he refused to read the riot act to demonstrators against unemployment.

After being elected to city council, he operated an insurance and real estate business. He served as Chairman of the Greater Winnipeg Transit Commission from 1956. Married with four children, he was a member of the Glendale Country Club, Young Mens Hebrew Organization, B’nai B’rith, Montefiore Club, Shaarey Zedek Synagogue, and the Masons (Mount Sinai Lodge). He died at Winnipeg on 17 December 1961 and was buried in Shaarey Zedek Cemetery. He is commemorated by a municipal golf course in Headingley. (This may have been important to him and his supporters because people of his religion were possibly banned from playing in private golf courses.)

Four Citizens' League candidates elected:

Frederick Davidson George Fisher Frank Fowler John Sullivan

Election of three Labour meant that Labour had as many councillor seats as Citizens League. Council was divided 7 to 7, with Mayor Gray tipping balance toward the Citizens League.

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Thomas Russ Deacon

His tactics as employer contributed to the Winnipeg General Strike. In November of 1919, after the strike he introduced a “Work’s Council” system of employee advisory boards into his shop to forestall unionization. Deacon was often employed by labour as the classic example of the anti-union strikebreaking Winnipeg employer.

Deacon disappeared from the public eye after 1919. He died at his Winnipeg home, 144 Yale Avenue, on 28 May 1955

================================

But the 1919 election did not solve anything. Gray was accused of stealing the election, and Labour felt let down by the system.

STV was brought in as way to smooth the waters and prevent one side or the other side of the Capital-versus Labour confrontation to feel betrayed by a lopsided election. That was what Ronald Hooper said. Hooper was self-taught expert on proportional representation and his newspaper articles on the subject had garnered much attention.

But others have the idea that STV is often brought in to keep Labour from getting the benefit that FPTP gives the strongest party.

The 1919 election yielded a tied council, with only the Mayor tipping the balance in favour of Citizens. But that result was almost an accident.

Even the Edmonton Bulletin far away in Alberta noted that a shift of only 1500 votes would have given Labour the mayor's seat or an aldermanic seat and thus given Labour a majority of seats on council. This gives credence to the charge that STV was brought in to keep Labour down. It guaranteed minority representation and it seems many believed the business slate would be less popular than Labour the next go-around, and thus would be a minority that could use the protection accorded minority groups under STV.

Certainly the powers that be did not want Labour to benefit from the switch.

Hooper recalled later being asked in early 1920 if STV would give Labour an advantage and he said he could not answer that. He said he did know that STV would give each party its due share of the vote in the district where used. And on that basis, he said, it was adopted as being fair to all parties.

Hooper was editor of the Winnipeg Tribune. Thus the switch to STV had the backing of his newspaper, one of Winnipeggers' main sources of information in those days before radio and television.

Amendment to city charter passed by Legislature in March 27 (2007 municipal manual

The next city election was not til Nov/Dec. In the meantime, a provincial election was to be held. STV was adopted for that as well, with the Winnipeg districts grouped into one city-wide district electing 10 MLAs through STV.

The election results proved that Dixon had been right to push for STV years earlier. Four Labour candidates of different hues were elected in Winnipeg, a record to that date. Great things were expected for the city election later that year as well.

Winnipeg City elections conducted using STV

When STV was adopted for election of city councillors, four more seats were added, and the number of wards was dropped to three. (This reduced the amount of Plural Voting that could skew an election.)

Thus, starting in 1920, 18 councillors were elected by STV in three six-member wards. They would serve two-year terms.

Elections were held each year, "staggered" elections. Three councillors were up for election in each ward each year. (When extra seats were open, due to resignation for example, they were filled through separate elections.)

Ward 3 was the North End and very Labour-oriented and socialist.

In some elections, all three aldermen elected in Ward 3 were Labour.

Several Communists were elected in Winnipeg city elections, and all were elected in Ward 3.

Kolisnyk Ward 3

Penner Ward 3

Forkin Ward 3

Zuken Ward 3

xcommunist

(see "Fighting for the Everyday Interests of Winnipeg Workers": Jacob Penner, Martin Forkin and the Communist Party in Winnipeg Politics, 1930-1935

By Epp, Stefan. I article])

Meanwhile the provincial government had passed law that future MLAs in Winnipeg would be elected through STV. and the first election had been held under the new system.

The election elected a mixed crop of MLAs reflecting the range of sentiments present among city voters.

Such fair results were expected as well in the upcoming city election. For some that was reassurance of a calming of the ongoing friction between classes.

John Dafoe, the editor of the Winnipeg Free Press from 1901 to his death in 1944, was one of these. In correspondence to Alfred Sifton -- federal cabinet minister in the WWI wartime Union government led by Conservative leader Robert Borden - he revealed his take on the local political situation in November 1920.

Dafoe wrote:

"The coming municipal elections are giving me a good deal of concern....

A victory for Labour a year ago would have had a very detrimental consequences and I think we [the Winnipeg Free Press] did the right thing in doing our bit to defeat Labour. This year the situation is not quite so bad.

For one thing, Pro-Rep has been adopted in all Manitoba elections [at the city and provincial levels in Winnipeg]. This was really the result of a Free Press crusade. It will enable us to keep pretty well out of the aldermanic contests because under pro-rep Labour is entitled to a percentage of the representation and will get it almost automatically."

Dafoe took notice of the way STV puts to rest the excitement and nail-biting live-or-die suspense of a FPTP election -- and the sharp antagonism that type of elections arouses.

Dafoe went on to say:

"The difficulty arises over the mayoralty. The influence of moderate labour is beginning to revive and the moderates made an effort in the nominating conventions of the DLP to control the nomination for mayor. They put up Mr. Puttee but he was defeated by Mr. Farmer who was the Red candidate last year. [If Mr. Puttee had been chosen the Free Pres would have been neutral or even supportive of him]... however the result of the nomination makes it only too clear that the radical element element are still in control of the machinery of the Labour party. I know Farmer well. He is an impractical doctrinaire, and I should regard his election as mayor with great concern.

Citizens' Committee putting up Edward Parnell... as the head of a big business concern and a man with presumably some money and also as president of the Board of Trade, he is just a natural target not only for Labour but for thousands of other people who are discontented with present conditions....

We shall have, at least in the later stages of the campaign, to oppose Mr. Farmer on his record, even if we do not care to directly support Mr. Parnell."

(from the Dafoe-Sifton Correspondence 1919-1927, Nov. 10, 1920)

=====

1920

Mayor:

Citizens League candidate Edward Parnell and an Independent Labour Party candidate Seymour Farmer ran for mayor in 1920. The sitting mayor Gray did not run for re-election.

Parnell received about 52 percent of the vote; Farmer only 48 percent.

Alternative Voting but only two candidates so no vote transfers were needed to determine who had majority of the votes.

Aldermanic:

11 elected. Three in each ward, plus two more as part of the four-seat addition to the city's council

The 11 city councillors elected in 1920:

8 Citizen's: Boyd, Douglas, Gray, Mekerchar, MacLean, O'Hare, Pulford, Sparling (in bold) 3 Labour: Heaps, Kirk, Simpson.

7 elected in 1919, now continuing in office:

4 Citizens: Davidson, Fisher, Fowler, Sullivan

3 Labour: Blumberg, Jones, Queen

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3

=====

List of those who served as aldermen on 1921 City council

1Blumberg John "Jack" Labour 1920-(1950) ? (1950)-1956 (Jew) (see his entry in 1919 for details) (continuing councillor in 1921--1)

2Boyd, Thomas on council 1921-1930 Citizens (Ward 2 two-year term) [nothing known about him]

Davidson Frederick Harvey (1865-1935) Citizens 1912-1916, 1920-1929, 1932-1933, 1935 (continuing councillor in 1921--2) (mayor 1917-1918)

4Douglas William (1878-1963) Citizens 1921-1922 (Ward 1 two-year term)

Fisher, George Citizens League served on city council 1918-1921 elected in 1919 (continuing councillor in 1921 -- 3)

6 Fowler Citizens (continuing councillor in 1921 -- 4)

Gray Herbert (1866-1924) Citizens 1911-1924 (Ward 1 two-year term)

8Heaps Abram Albert (1885-1954) 1917-1925 Labour (Ward 3 two-year term)

Jones Herbert Labour 1920-1927 (continuing councillor in 1921 -- 5)

10Kirk Jessie (1877-1965) 1921-1922 Labour (Ward 2 two-year term)

McKerchar John A. (1862-?) Citizens 1921-1934 Citizens' (Ward 2 two-year term)

12McLean Daniel McLean (1868-1950) Citizens 1907-1910, 1921-1927, 1931-1932, 1935-1942 (Ward 3 two-year term) (mayor 1928-1929) (Conservative MLA 1914-1915) (WWI officer)

O'Hare John (1876-1964) Citizens 1921-1929 (elected in Ward 2 by-el to one-year term)

14 Pulford Alfred Henry (1865-1937) Citizens 1906-1907, 1917-1921, 1923-1928 (elected in Ward 1 by-el to one-year term)

Queen John (1882-1946) 1916-1921 Labour (CCF Mayor) (continuing councillor in 1921--6)

16Simpson William Boad (1877-1952) [Labour per CH] 1915-1917, 1919-1934 (Ward 3 two-year term)

Sparling John Kerr (1872-1941) Citizens 1917-1922 (Ward 1 two-year term)

18 Sullivan John Godfrey (1863-1938) Citizens 1920-1927 (continuing councillor in 1921--7)

Abraham Albert Heaps (1885-1954) on council 1917-1925

Upholsterer, MP (1926), MP (1926-1930), MP (1930-1935), MP (1936-1940).

Born in Leeds, England on 24 December 1885, of Polish-Jewish descent, he came to Canada in 1910 and to Winnipeg in 1911. He married Bessie Morris (?-?) on 6 July 1913 with whom he had two sons.

Heaps was a member of the Social Democratic Party and a pacifist, opposing conscription in 1917 with F. J. Dixon and John Queen. He served on the Winnipeg City Council from 1917 to 1925.

During the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 he supervised the commissariat for the strike committee, and in council advocated banning all parades. He was arrested on 17 June 1919 and charged with seditious conspiracy. He conducted his own defence and was found innocent on all counts on 28 March 1920, after a masterful address to the jury.

He then started an insurance agency for Great-West Life Incorporated, from which he resigned in 1925 when he was elected to the House of Commons from Winnipeg North over the Liberal candidate, E. J. McMurray, late Solicitor-General, and the Conservative candidate, ex-MP Matthew R. Blake. He was re-elected in the 1926, 1930 and 1935 general elections.

In 1926 he confronted Arthur Meighen in the House over government policy at the time of the Winnipeg General Strike. Heaps was on friendly terms with R. B. Bennett and Mackenzie King but was cordially hated by Meighen and Tim Buck, the leader of the Communist Party of Canada. With J.S. Woodsworth, he helped to introduce the Old Age Pension in Canada, in 1927. He served in the Commons as an unofficial critic on economic policy until 1940, when he was defeated in the federal general election.

He died at Bournemouth, England on 4 April 1954 while visiting relatives. He was buried at Leeds

=============================================================== Differently worded:

1920 Winnipeg election

[from manuscript of book I am writing on electoral reform in Canada]

Around 30,000 votes were cast in the 1920 election, about one-third of the voters' list. (Edmonton Bulletin, Dec. 4, 1920)

1920 Aldermanic election

Winnipeg newly being given 18 seats on its council, there were adjustments to be made.

Seven seats that were filled in 1919 to two-year terms would not be up for election - their occupants would be continuing members. The fact that they had been elected in wards that no longer existed was disregarded. Two were allocated to Ward 1, two to Ward 2 and three to Ward 3. Wards 1 and Wards 2 would each hold a separate election to elect a member just for a one-year term that would finish in 1921 simultaneous with the end of the terms of the continuing members.

Thus for the election of the 1921 city council, eleven seats were empty in the December 1920 election.

The Citizens' League ran 11 candidates for council, one for every open seat.

The Labour Party ran 12 candidates who competed for 10 seats. Perhaps the Labour party avoided a nomination meeting and just put anyone interested in the field, relying on the STV process to give voters the opportunity to find the most popular candidates without penalty to the party's standings.

According to one report, the campaign was devoid of bitterness that had marked the previous years' contest. (Edmonton Bulletin, Dec. 3, 1920)

Ward 1, there were two elections.

One to fill a one-year-term seat. A.H. Pulford (CC) was re-elected by acclamation for this seat.

Three other Ward 1 seats were filled through another election, the successful candidates to sit for two-year terms.

Ward 1 (3 seats)

Total votes cast = about 9900 Quota required for election = about 2500

Three Citizen's League candidates led in the First Count:

Alderman Herbert Gray (Citizens') 2,802

Alderman J.K. Sparling (Citizens') 2,755

William Douglas (Citizens') 2,697

T.J. Murray (Labour) 1,633

G.S. Frame (Labour) 1,070

J.W. Morrison (Independent) 354

The top three won in the end.

Ward 2 (3 seats)

Total votes cast = about 9700 Quota required for election = about 2400

First Count:

J.A. McKerchar (Citizens') 2,042

Thomas Boyd (Citizens) 1,732

T.H. Fyfe (Labour) 1,359

Mrs. Jessie Kirk (Labour) 1,357

Alderman Ernest Robinson (Labour) 1262

A.J. Maclean (Citizens) 1,019

Charles Vanderlip (party affil not noted) 433

C.H. Mounsey (Labour) 369

T.H. Truscott (party affil not noted) 170

(Four Labour candidates competed for these three seats.)

McKerchar, Boyd and Jessie Kirk won in the end, Kirk rising up past Fyfe through general personal appeal. (They were both of the Labour Party, so here we have proof of voters' liberty under STV to choose the specific candidate of a party. She was the first woman on city council.)

As well there was an election to fill a one-year-term seat in Ward 2.

Alternative Voting. Majority required for election = about 4500

First Count:

John O'Hare (Citizens') 3,717

Dr. S.J. Johannesson (Labour) 2,820

Robert Sutherland (Labour) 1,418

W.H. Hoop (Labour) 1,238

(It is not known why three Labour candidates competed for this one-year seat.)

O'Hare won in the end.

Ward 3 (3 seats)

Total votes cast = about 8000 Quota required for election = about 2000

First Count

Alderman A.A. Heaps (Labour) 3,201

Colonel Dan McLean (Citizens') 1,491

Alderman W.B. Simpson (Labour) 857

Alderman J.L. Wiginton (Independent) 817

Jesse Howard (Labour) 622

C.F. Mount (Citizens) 577

Dr. A. Moyse (party affil not noted) 345

Samuel Lewles (party affil not noted) 137

The top three won in the end.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Finally on December 6, the last of the seats were filled. Three Labour men were elected, and eight Citizens League men were elected.

The final result was

Ward 1 (one seat, one-year term) A.H. Pulford (Citizens') (acclamation)

Ward 1 (3 seats two-year terms) Alderman Gray (CC), Alderman Sparling (CC), Douglas (CC) elected this year. Fowler (CC) and Sullivan (CC) were continuing.

Ward 2 (one seat, one-year term) John O'Hare (Citizens') elected this year.

Ward 2 (three seats two-year terms) MacKerchar (Citizens'), Boyd (Citizens') and Mrs. Jessie Kirk (Labour) elected this year. Davidson and Fisher, both Citizens', were continuing from previous year.

Ward 3 (three seats, two-year terms) Heaps (Labour), McLean (CC) and Simpson (Labour) elected this year.

Blumberg, Jones and John Queen, all Labour, were continuing from previous year. All but one of the aldermen for this ward were Labour.

Going into the election there were seven continuing councillors - four Citizens' and three Labour (J. Blumberg, Herbert Jones and John Queen). Because only three more Labourites were elected, Labour was still in the minority against the CC's 12 councillors.

One of the "continuing" councillors was John Queen who was also a sitting MLA. He, along with recently-elected MLA Rev. William Ivens and George Armstrong, was serving time in prison for his involvement in the General Strike but they were expected to be released in December 1920 so they could take their Legislature seats before the legislative session ended. (Edmonton Bulletin, December 4, 1920, page 1; Gleichen Call, Dec. 15, 1920, p. 3; Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 10, 1919)

There was only one turn-over. Mrs. Jessie Kirk moved from fourth place on the First Count in Ward 2 to third place in later counts to take a seat.

The school board vote was also conducted through STV. Five board members represented each ward.

Two Labour women sat -- in Ward 2 Mrs. Maude McCarthy and in Ward 3 Mrs. Rose Alcin.

Two Labour men also sat for those wards – James Simpkin and C.E. Beeken. (Edmonton Bulletin, Dec. 4, 1920, page 1)

============================

1920s

(Mayors noted with each election)

List of alderman who served in the 1920s when STV was used to elect councillors

Labour, being the minority, are in bold to show STV's usefulness in producing minority representation

Barry, James Alexander Citizens alderman for Ward 3, 1922-1936/37? (CPR executive, Catholic) (Conservative MLA 1936-)

Blumberg John "Jack" Labour 1920-(1950) ? (1950)-1956 (Jew)

Chisholm, C.C. on council 1926-1927 [nothing known about him] [party label unknown]

Davidson, Frederick Harvey (1865-1935) CL 1912-1916, 1920-1929, 1932-1933, 1935 (mayor 1917-1918)

Douglas, William (1878-1963) Cit. 1921-1922

Durward, Robert Durward (1885-1970) Cit. 1925-1926, 1928-1931

Farmer, Seymour James (1878-1951) Labour 1928-1929

Gray, Herbert (1866-1924) Cit. 1911-1924

Heaps, Abram Albert (1885-1954) Labour 1917-1925

Honeyman, Egbert Douglas (1886-1969) Cit. 1929-1938

James, W.A. 1924-1925 [party label unknown]

Jones, Herbert Labour 1920-1927

Kennedy, S.S. 1928-1929 [party label unknown]

Kirk, Jessie (1877-1965) Labour 1921-1922 woman (She had lost her job as teacher due to labour activities. Ran for school board in 1919 unsuccessfully. Won seat on city council in 1920, first woman on city council. Ran again in 1922, 1926 and 1934, all unsuccessfully.)

Kolisnyk, William N. (1887-1967) 1927-1930 CLP (Communist)

Leech, Ernest Tennyson (1876-1961) 1923-1930 (Conservative)

Leonard, Alexander Robert (1869-1942) 1922-1929 (businessman, Liberal candidate 1903)

Lowe, William Bertram (1881-1952) (union executive in Typographers Union) 1929-1930, 1933-1936

McKerchar, John A. (1862-?) Cit. 1921-1934

McLean, Daniel (1868-1950) Cit. 1907-1910, 1921-1927, 1931-1932, 1935-1942

O'Hare, John (1876-1964) Cit. 1921-1929

Palmer, J. Fred 1927-1930 [party label unknown]

Pulford, Alfred Henry (1865-1937) Cit. 1906-1907, 1917-1921, 1923-1928

Queen, John (1882-1946) 1916-1921 Labour (CCF Mayor)

Shore, Robert James (1883-1952) (real estate, union background) 1910-1914, 1922-1928 [party label unknown]

Simpkin, James (1875-1946) Labour on council 1923-1946

Simpson, William Boad (1877-1952) Cit. 1915-1917, 1919-1934

Sparling, John Kerr (1872-1941) Cit. 1917-1922

Sullivan, John Godfrey (1863-1938) Cit. 1920-1927

==================================================

Selected biographies

Flye, Thomas (1874-1943) Labour 1922-1943

(leader of 1919 WGS. Left ILP over the "one man one position" issue (he was against Queen being both MLA and mayoral candidate). Ran as independent when elected in 1921 [and thereafter]. gave up day job to attend to council duties full time. referred to as "the unofficial mayor of Weston.")

James Simpkin (1875-1946) Carpenter

On council 1923-1946. Trustee of Winnipeg General Hospital and on Winnipeg school board. Unsuccessful Labour candidate in 1922 and 1941 prov. elections.

Born at Blackburn, Lancashire, England in 1875, he worked in a cotton factory at the age of 10. In 1907 he and his wife emigrated to Canada and settled at Winnipeg, where he worked as a carpenter until 1923 when he was elected to the Winnipeg city council. He served there for 24 years (1923 to 1946), being Chairman of the Public Utilities Committee, Public Safety Committee, Social Welfare Commission, the Unemployment Relief Committee. He also served on the Airport Commission and Public Parks Board. Prominent in the fight for municipal ownership and control of public utilities, he was particularly interested in City Hydro. He was a trustee of the Winnipeg General Hospital and served on the Winnipeg School Board.

A long-time member of the Independent Labor Party and later the CCF, he was an unsuccessful Labour candidate for the Manitoba Legislature in the 1922 and 1941 general elections. He died at his Winnipeg home, 1040 Ingersoll Street, on 10 June 1946 and was buried in Brookside Cemetery

=======================================

1920s Labour councillors by councillor/years

of the nine terms of council 1921-1929, which had 162 councillor-years,

Labour

Blumberg John "Jack" Labour 1920-(1950) ? (1950)-1956 (Jew) 10

Durward Labour 1925-1926 and 1928-1931 4

Farmer 2

Flye 1922-1943 8

Heaps 4

Jones 7

Kirk 2

Kolisnyk 3

Queen 1

Simpkin 9

Labour total: 50 so about one quarter of the seats on the average were filled by Labour councillors.

===================================================

1921

Mayor: Edward Parnell elected by acclamation (died June 9, 1922)

Mayor: Sitting alderman Frank Fowler (CC) elected on June 20, 1922

Aldermanic:

James Alexander Barry (1886-1950) 1922-1937 (Conservative MLA 1936-)

He served on Council for Ward 3, likely being elected in 1921, 1923, 1925, 1927, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935. He resigned in 1936 to serve as MLA. [probably]

1922

Mayor: Seymour Farmer Independent Labour Party

Aldermanic:

1923

Mayor: Seymour Farmer Labour re-elected

He was sitting MLA at the time, having been elected in the 1923 provincial election. He continued to sit as MLA until 1949.

Aldermanic:

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3 James Alexander Barry (1886-1950) on council 1922-1937 Ward 3 (Conservative MLA 1936-)

CPC ran first candidate in city elections. name not given (Epp, "Fighting for the Interests of Everyday Workers", MB History, No. 63)

Communist candidates ran for mayor three times (Epp, "Fighting for the Interests of Everyday Workers", MB History, No. 63)

Penner

Jacob Penner and Norman Penner, “Recollections of the Early Socialist Movement in Winnipeg,” Histoire sociale – Social History 14 (November 1974): pp. 366-378

Flye Labour re-elected

1924

40,000 votes cast

Mayor: Col. Ralph Webb elected over Seymour Farmer, ILP running for election as a third

term as mayor.

Webb about 22,000 votes; Farmer about 18,000 votes.

(Farmer, an MLA all through this period, later sat as city councillor 1928-1929.)

Aldermanic:

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3 James Alexander Barry re-elected. CL on council 1922-1936/7 (Conservative MLA 1936-)

Durward Labour elected, filling seat left empty when Heaps moved to Legislature, serving 1925-1926, (and later 1928-1931).

Robert Durward 1885-1970) Born in Scotland, moved to Canada in 1904. prairie fire destroyed his place so moved to Winnipeg and found employment with post office. participated in General Strike and fired. Blacklisted and never rehired. Elected to school board then to council in 1924. Labour candidate in 1927 prov. election. Replaced by Taras Ferley in 1931. Factory inspector.

1925

less than 40,000 (the total of previous year)

apathetic city campaign,

Labour vote particularly thin where Labour had been supported well in past

Mayor: Col. Ralph Webb elected over F.G. Tipping, Labour

Webb 23,721 Tipping 13,937

Aldermanic election

Ward 1: winners known = J.S. McDiarmid CL and Alderman A.R. Leonard CL

Ward 2: winners known = Alderman F.H. Davidson CL and Alderman Flye, Labour

Ward 3 Barry CL elected. Communist Popovich unsuccessful

[no other results known in Nov. 28, 1925 CH]

James Alexander Barry (1886-1950) 1922-1937 (Conservative MLA 1936-)

"He served on Council for Ward 3, being elected in 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1925."

John Stewart McDiarmid (1882-1965) on council 1926 (Lib MLA 1926-1930, 1932-1953ish)

"He served as an Alderman for the City of Winnipeg in 1926 and a Liberal Member of Parliament for Winnipeg South from 1926 to 1930. Defeated in the 1930 federal general

election, he was elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 1932, 1936, 1941, 1945 and 1949. He was Provincial Secretary in 1939, and Minister of Mines and Natural Resources from 1932 to 1952. He developed new mining industries during the Great Depression, established conservation measures to revive the fur trade, and promoted tourism and recreation within Manitoba."

Flye Labour re-elected

School board

altogether 36 candidate ran for aldermen and school board

1926

Mayor: Col. Ralph Webb re-elected

Aldermanic:

1927

Mayor: Lt. Col. Dan McLean

Aldermanic elections

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3 William Kolisnyk Communist. elected under ILP label.

William Kolisnyk Born in Ukraine 1887, came to Canada with his parents, on council 1927-1930

On council, Kolisnyk regularly advocated for improved transportation services for the North End, improved conditions for those on unemployment relief, and worked on behalf of municipal employees to enable them to unionize. Not re-elected in 1930.

Ran in the 1932 provincial general election as Labour candidate in Fisher district but was unsuccessful, fellow Ukrainian-Canadian, MLA Nicholas Bachynsky, being elected.

Kolisnyk was an influential leader in Winnipeg’s Ukrainian community and played a pivotal role in the establishment and operation of the Workers’ and Farmers’ Cooperative. During WWII, he, along with other Communists, was detained by the federal government. He went blind during his detention. He lived in BC after his release and died in 1967.

(see Stefan Epp, “A Communist in the Council Chambers: Communist Municipal Politics, Ethnicity, and the Career of William Kolisnyk,” Labour/Le Travail 63 (Spring 2009), p. 83.)

Durward Labour elected, serving to 1931

Flye Labour re-elected

1928

Mayor: Lt. Col. Dan McLean

Aldermanic:

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3

1929

Mayor: Col. Ralph Webb

Aldermanic:

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3

Herbert Andrews (1888-1935) [Business] 1930-1935 (nephew of A.J. Andrews, founder of the Committee of a 1000, the anti-strike pushback during the Winnipeg General Strike)

LeRoy Franklin Borrowman (c1885-1957) on council 1930-1932

"Born at Stillwater, Minnesota, he graduated in civil engineering from the University of

Minnesota in 1910. He came to Winnipeg the next year and worked as a construction engineer with Sutherland Construction Company until 1925. He became a partner in the firm of Borrowman and Jamieson Limited until 1930 when he was elected to the Winnipeg City Council (1930-1932)."

Durward Labour re-elected

Flye re-elected ====================================================

1930s

councillors list not yet done (I was districted to doing something else)

still on Tennant

1930s Councillors

Barry, James Citizens 1922-1937

Blumberg John "Jack" Labour 1920-(1950) ? (1950)-1956 (Jew)

Boyd, Thomas on council 1921-1930 [nothing known about him]

Cuddy, Wilhem Alexander (1890-1945) on council 1931-1932 [party label unknown]

Davidson, Frederick Harvey (1865-1935) Cit. 1912-1916, 1920-1929, 1932-1933, 1935

Durward Robert (1885-1970) Labour 1925-1926, 1928-1931

Elcheshen, D.M. 1938

Ferley, Taras Dempster (1882-1947) Labour on council 1932-1933 (ran as Labour candidate for aldermanic seat in 1913. ran as Labour candidate Gimli in 1914. Labour MLA Gimli in 1915-1920)

Flye, Thomas (1874-1943) Labour 1922-1943

Forkin, Martin “Joe” Jr. (1899-1962) Communist 1935-1951, 1961-1962

Gray, Morris Abraham (1887-1966) ILP 1931-1942

Gunn, Cecil Herbert Gunn (1892-1941) 1932-1935

Honeyman, Egbert Douglas (1886-1969) 1929-1938

Kolisnyk, William N. (1887-1967) 1927-1930 CLP Communist

Leech, Ernest Tennyson (1876-1961) 1923-1930

Lowe, William Bertram (1881-1952) 1929-1930, 1933-1936

Maybank Ralph (1890-1965) 1930-1931 (Lib. candidate 1927, Lib-Progressive MLA 1932; Liberal MP 1935-1953ish)

MacKenzie, Hugh (1884-1949) 1939-1940

McKerchar, John A. (1862-?) Cit. 1921-1934

McLean, Daniel (1868-1950) 1907-1910, 1921-1927, 1931-1932, 1935-1942

McWilliams, Margaret Stovel (1875-1952) 1934-1940 woman (second woman on council, active in women's movement, journalist and author)

Morrison, Henry Cyrus “Harry” (?-?) 1937-1948 (wealthy lawyer)

Oelkers, Henry (1902-1963) 1933-1934 (doctor) [affiliation unknown]

Palmer, J. Fred 1927-1930

Penner, Jacob 1934-1940, 1943-1952, 1954-1961 Communist (see his biography below for details)

Rice-Jones, Cecil (1881-1972) 1931-1936

Roberts, A.J. 1930-1931

Ryley, Alfred Argue (1861-1932) 1931-1932

Sara, Richard Allan (1888-1963) 1937-1944

Simonite, Charles Edward (1879-1973) 1930-1933, 1936-1955

Simpkin, James (1875-1946) 1923-1946

Simpson, William Boad (1877-1952) 1915-1917, 1919-1934

Smith, Charles Rhodes (1896-1993) 1935-1941

Stobart, Matthew William (1884-1966) 1934-1939 [party affil. unknown]

Thompson, Frederick George (1886-1972) 1936-1943

Select biographies of councillors

Jacob Penner (1880-1968)

"Born in Ukraine on 12 August 1880, he came to Manitoba with his wife in 1904 and taught school at Gretna. He subsequently moved to Winnipeg where he worked as a florist and an accountant. He helped found the Socialist Party of Canada in 1905 and the Social Democratic Party a few years later. He joined the Communist Party in 1921 and was its national chair in 1958.

Finished a distant fourth place in the 1921 federal general election for the Winnipeg North constituency, also unsuccessful in the 1927 and 1932 provincial general elections, He was elected to the Winnipeg City Council in 1934 representing Ward 3 (the North End) as a Communist.

Even though the position of alderman was a part-time one, he gave up his career as an accountant to serve full-time on his $25 per month city salary. He insisted that his chief concern was to protect “those on the lower rung of the social ladder,” and was particularly noted for his advocacy of low-rental housing.

one of his first achievements was working with Morris Gray, Blumberg and Flye collected information on the deportations that were whisking away so many ethnic polticial Winnipegers. They eventually convinced he Citizens aldermen to join with ILP and the Communist alderman to object to the practice, and the federal government stopped the practice. Epp noetd that "This was a significant accomplishment because many Party members, and other immigrants residing in Winnipeg, had previously faced deportation for requesting relief." (Epp, Fighting..., p. 19)

Penner served until 1940 when he was arrested under federal wartime Defence of Canada Regulations for being a “known and dangerous communist.” He was interned in Quebec for 22 months. Upon his release he was again elected to his old seat and remained on council until 1952, then 1954 to 1961.

He was a Labour Progressive Party candidate in the 1959 provincial general election."

(See Jacob Penner and Norman Penner, “Recollections of the Early Socialist Movement in Winnipeg,” Histoire sociale – Social History 14 (November 1974): pp. 366-378. ===============================

1930s Labour and Communist councillors in office by councillor/year

Durward 2

Ferley 2

Flye 1922-1943 10

Forkin 5

Kolisnyk 1

Penner 6

Simpkin, James on council 1923-1946 10

Labour total: 36 out of 180 councillor/years

==================================================

1930

Mayor: Col. Ralph Webb

Aldermanic:

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3

1931

Mayor: Col. Ralph Webb

Aldermanic:

Ward 1

Ward 2

Ward 3

Paul Bardal (1889-1966) 1932-1941 (Liberal-Progressive MLA 1941-1945, 1949- )

[1931?] LeRoy Franklin Borrowman (c1885-1957) on council 1930-1932

Labour's Ferly replaced Labour's Durward. [Durward perhaps retired]

Taras Dempster Ferley 1882-1947 on council 1932-1933

Educator, publisher and real estate broker, municipal official, MLA (1916-1920).

Born in Ukraine on 14 October 1882, son of Theodore and Marie Ferley, he was educated at Kolomea Gymnasium and Lemberg University. He came to Canada in 1903. On 22 July of that year, he married Natalia Amy Rurak (?-1971), daughter of Michael Rurak, of Ukraine. They had two children: Jaroslan Ferley and Eugenie Ferley.

From 1907 to 1910, he was a teacher at the Ruthenian Training school at Brandon. Later moving to Winnipeg, he was a Director of the Ukrainian Publishing Company of Canada. He was a candidate for an aldermanic seat in the Winnipeg City Council in 1913, and a Labour candidate for Gimli in 1914 and 1915. He was elected to the Manitoba Legislature at the 1915 general election and served a single term, being defeated by Gudmundur Fjelsted in the 1920 general election. He was a member of the Winnipeg City Council from 1932 to 1933, replacing Robert Durward

1932

Mayor: Col. Ralph Webb (beating out John Queen)

Aldermanic:

Victor Bjorn Anderson (1882-1970) Labour 1933-1936, 1940-1954

1933

Mayor: Col. Ralph Webb (beating out John Queen)

Aldermanic:

1934

Mayor: John Queen (CCF) (beating out John McKerchar, the candidate of the city's

business interests )

(Queen was councillor Ward Five 1916-1919, Winnipeg Labour MLA 1920-1932) (see Gutkin, Profiles in Dissent, p. 343-361)

his wife? Katherine (Ross) Queen, attended 1931 Calgary conference that called for

"socialization of economic life in he country." [1932 CCF founding?]

Aldermanic:

Victor Bjorn Anderson (1882-1970) Labour 1933-1936, 1940-1954

Penner, Jacob 1934-1940, 1943-1952, 1954-1961 Communist (Ward 3)

1935

Mayor: John Queen (CCF)

Aldermanic:

1936

Mayor: Frederick Warriner

Aldermanic:

Ward 1:

Ward Two:

Garnet Coulter (1882-1975) on council 1937-1942 (mayor 1941-1954) "He served as a member of the Winnipeg School Board from 1924 to 1936 and, in 1936, was elected as Winnipeg City Alderman from Ward Two. On city council he was an inveterate opponent of Mayor John Queen . He ran successfully for Mayor as an independent in 1942, and served until 1954. In the 1946 election, he received more than 62,000 votes. Mayor during the Manitoba flood of 1950, he was responsible for the creation of the Manitoba Flood Relief Fund."

Ward 3:

1937

Mayor: John Queen (CCF)

Aldermanic:

1938

Mayor: John Queen (CCF)

Aldermanic:

Bileski 1938? Andrew Bileski (Bilecki) (1903-1992) 1938-1939 [LPP] 1945 prov. election ran as LPP candidate in St. Clements "First nominated for public office in 1929, he was elected, and re-elected several times, as a school trustee for Ward 3 (1933-1939) for the Winnipeg School Division . He resigned his position, ran for Alderman in Ward 3 (1939), and was elected to the Winnipeg City Council (1939-1940). In September 1940, he and fellow Alderman Jacob Penner were detained by the federal government under the Defense of Canada regulations on charge of being a member of the Communist party; and was eventually released in 1942. He again won re-election as a school trustee (1961-1964) and was a candidate in the 1945 , 1949, and 1953 federal general elections, a 1950 provincial by-election, and the 1945 and 1962 provincial general elections. He was appointed by City Council to the Civic Charities Endorsement Bureau, where he served for nine years"

1939

Mayor: John Queen (CCF)

Aldermanic:

Anderson Victor Bjorn Anderson (1882-1970) Labour 1933-1936, 1940-1954 =======================================================================