Person

Woodsworth, James Shaver

• J.S. Woodsworth

29 July 1874 – 21 March 1942

James Shaver (J.S.) Woodsworth was born on 29 July, 1874 in Etobicoke, Ontario. He is the son of James Woodsworth – a Methodist minister – and Esther Josephine Shaver. Religion played a large part in his upbringing as his father’s ministry took the family west to Manitoba and he followed in those footsteps becoming ordained himself in 1896. He attended the University of Toronto and Oxford University, which planted the seeds for his interest in social welfare, the morality of war and imperialism, and his questioning of traditional religious dogma. James spent years working with poor and immigrant families in Winnipeg, during which time he cemented his position on democratic socialism while campaigning for social welfare issues such as compulsory education, poverty relief, collective bargaining and labour rights.
By 1916 James had published two books, travelled extensively through the Canadian prairie provinces conducting research on social issues and lecturing, and become an outspoken opponent of the use of the Church as a means of recruitment for the war effort. He was transferred to a posting in Gibson’s Landing, British Columbia in 1917, from which he tendered his resignation from the Church in 1918 in opposition to their support of World War I. In order to make ends meet James joined a longshoreman’s union, worked as a stevedore in Vancouver for a year and published articles in a labour newspaper.

James embarked on a tour of Canada in 1919 and found himself in Winnipeg during the week of the eponymous general strike. In addition to attending meetings and organizing a protest he wrote several editorials following the arrest of a number of strike leaders, for which he was himself arrested for seditious libel. The charges were dropped but James remained a popular figure and in 1921 he was elected to Parliament representing Winnipeg North Centre. He held this seat until his death in 1942.
While in office James pushed an agenda that included unemployment insurance, parliamentary reform, labour rights, improved social measures and an old-age pension plan that eventually became the cornerstone of Canada’s current social security system. In 1932 he was actively involved in the formation of a new socialist party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) which in later decades evolved into the New Democratic Party (NDP). By 1935 the CCF held 7 seats in Parliament and James Woodsworth was elected leader of the party. Maintaining his pacifist beliefs from the First World War, in 1939 he was the only person to vote in opposition to Canada’s declaration of war in what became World War II. As a result he lost his leadership position, but was reelected for a final time in 1940. Later that year and already in declining health, James suffered a stroke. He passed away in Vancouver on 21 March, 1942.
James Woodsworth was survived by Lucy Staples Woodsworth, his wife of 38 years, and his six children. His eldest daughter Grace followed her father’s footsteps in politics as a MLA in British Columbia and as the first woman from B.C. to be elected to Parliament.

MacInnis, Grace (25 July 1905 - 10 July 1991)

Woodsworth, Lucy Lillian (1874 - 01- March 1976)

Created 15 Feb 2019, JMH

https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/medicare/medic-1k10e.html https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/canadian-history-biographies/james-shaver-woodsworth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._Woodsworth http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/woodsworth_js.shtml https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/james-shaver-woodsworth
Contents of The J.S. and Lucy Woodsworth family fonds