Groups and individuals who claimed that there was a social problem which needed to be adressed
The working classes believed that there was a problem. The
single most important factor of industrial strife in the post-war period was
inflation, or to be more specific, the inability of salaries to keep pace with inflation.
Increased demand for all types of manufactured and semi-manufactured
commodities spearheaded a hike in prices across the board. Shortages in skilled
labour drove wage increases in some select fields, further fueling the rapidly
skyrocketing inflation rates. Between the years of 1914 and 1919 inflation rose
from fifty percent to seventy-five percent. Only a few whose skills were
solicited in war industries (machinists, mechanics, shipyard workers) were able
to keep ahead of the constantly rising cost of living; the rest were not as
fortunate. As inflation rates soared, the majority of workers, who were unable
to gain substantial wage increases, found their already low standard of life
decline further.
How the social problem was described by the groups and peoples involved
The labourers claimed that it was their right to organize
themselves and unionize in order to obtain equality with their employers. They
believed that the working conditions (long working hours, poor sanitation) were
unjust, their wages insufficient in comparison to the cost of living and the
amount of power which employers had over employees inequitable. Some, such as
J. S. Woodsworth and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, wished for a
fundamental restructuration of government, a complete shift towards socialism.
Others campaigned for more moderate causes: improvement of working conditions,
increases in wages and the right to unionize.
The employers and government wished for the maintenance of the status quo. They did not want to make any concessions which may result in losses of profit or losses of power. They often created a picture of the labourers as communists, Bolsheviks and foreigners; a problem from the outside, not one from within. The employers had significant political power and influence in government. As a result the government often sided with the employers in labour disputes.
The employers and government wished for the maintenance of the status quo. They did not want to make any concessions which may result in losses of profit or losses of power. They often created a picture of the labourers as communists, Bolsheviks and foreigners; a problem from the outside, not one from within. The employers had significant political power and influence in government. As a result the government often sided with the employers in labour disputes.
Individuals or groups who were held responsible for the social problem
James Shaver Woodsworth
James Shaver Woodsworth was a pioneer in the Social
Democratic movement of Canada. Born on July 29, 1884, he began his career as a
Methodist minister in 1996 and spent six years in Winnipegs North End working
with poor, immigrant families. After witnessing firsthand the conditions in
which his fellow citizens lived Woodsworth became a ardent champion of the
working class, a proponent of the labour movement and an advocate of socialism.
In 1919, he found himself in Winnipeg as the Winnipeg General Strike unfolded.
He immediately joined the strike committee and began to attend meetings
regularly. After police killed one man and injured thirty more he led the
campaign of protest. In 1921, he was elected into office as a Independent
Labour Party Member of Parliament for Winnipeg North. During the Great
Depression, Woodsworth was instrumental in creating a new socialist party the
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which would later become the NDP. He was
quoted at the CCF convention of 1933 saying "I am convinced that we may
develop in Canada a distinctive type of Socialism. I refuse to follow slavishly
the British model or the American model or the Russian model. We in Canada will
solve our problems along our own lines."
Arthur Meighen
Born in 1874, Arthur Meighen was a lawyer and politician. He
served two terms as the ninth Prime Minister of Canada. In 1919, at the time of
the Winnipeg General Strike he was serving as a Minister of Justice and
Minister of the Interior under Prime Minister Robert Borden. Fearing that the
strike could spark similar events in other Canadian cities, the government sent
Meighen and the minister of labour, Gideon Robertson, to intervene. The two met
with the Citizens' Committee of one thousand, the anti-strike organization,
however declined to meet with the Central Strike Committee. As a result of
their visit the government supported the employers and forced federal employees
back to work.
George Brown
Born on November 29, 1818, George Brown was a Canadian
journalist and politician as well as one of the Fathers of Confederation. In
1869 the Toronto Printers' Union sent a petition to reduce the amount of
working hours from twelve hours a day to fifty-eight hours a week. This request
was denied by all owners of printing shops including George Brown, the owner of
The Globe. On March 25, 1872 the printers went on strike. The employers fought
the printers by bringing in workers from small town. George Brown launched a
legal action against the strikers for conspiracy, as it was illegal to form
unions. The police arrested the twenty-four members of the strike committee.
However, Brown lost the support of the working class through his acts during
the strike. In an attempt to gain the political support of the working class,
Brown's competitor John A. Macdonald passed the Trade Union's Act, lifting the
ban on unions and union activity.
John A. Macdonald
Born on January 11, 1815, Sir John Alexander Macdonald was a
lawyer, politician and the first Prime Minister of Canada. He is accredited
with passing one of the most important pieces of legislation regarding labour
in the history of Canada. In 1872, campaigning for a nine-hour working day, the
Toronto Printers went on strike. The affair turned into a scandal for his
political rival George Brown, who denied the printer's requests and sought
legal action against them, thus losing the support of the working class. In
order to cement his reputation as the candidate for the working class,
Macdonald passed the Trade Unions' Act, lifting the ban on unions. This law was
Macdonald's response to a period of labour turmoil in Canadian history.
Helen Armstrong
The viewpoint of working women is seldom discussed when it comes to Canadian labour history. However, an estimated 90 percent of the telegraph operators who first began the Winnipeg General Strike were women. Helen Armstrong was the leader of her local women's labour league and the wife of George Armstrong, one of the leaders of the strike. She also ran a women's kitchen designed to feed striking women as well as, upon occasion, striking men.