Woodsworth, James Shaver

  • From The Canadian Encyclopedia: See full biography at: https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/james-shaver-woodsworth
  • Notes from biography:
    • James Shaver Woodsworth, Methodist pastor, social worker and politician (born 29 July, 1874 in Etobicoke, ON. Died 21 March, 1942 in Vancouver, BC). First leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), he was the best known of the reform-minded Social Gospel ministers and led many of them into the politics of democratic socialism. Woodsworth moved to Brandon, Man, in 1885 where his father became superintendent of Methodist missions in the Northwest. Ordained in 1896, he spent 2 years as a Methodist circuit rider in Manitoba and a further 2 years studying at Victoria College and Oxford.
    • In June 1919 Woodsworth was arrested in Winnipeg and charged with seditious libel for editorials written during the Winnipeg General Strike. Following the arrest of 10 strike leaders on June 17 and “Bloody Saturday,” June 21, when a nonviolent protest parade was broken up by mounted police and soldiers, Woodsworth had written about “Kaiserism” in Canada. 
    • For Woodsworth the tragedy of the Depression was increasingly overshadowed by the impending horror of WWII and he gave his attention to Canada’s international position. Inside the CCF he faced the growing concern of some of his colleagues that Hitler’s threat could only be met by force. Believing that war breeds only war he strove to persuade the government to declare Canada’s right to neutrality. He failed, as he did in the CCF National Council in Sept 1939 which gave limited support to a Canadian declaration of war. “M.J.”Coldwell stated the official CCF position in the special parliamentary session while Woodsworth was permitted to explain his dissent. Reviewing the interwar period and repeating that war settles nothing, Woodsworth declared: “I rejoice that it is possible to say these things in a Canadian parliament under British institutions. It would not be possible in Germany, I recognize that … and I want to maintain the very essence of our British institutions of real liberty. I believe that the only way to do it is by an appeal to the moral forces which are still resident among our people, and not by another resort to brute force.” He alone rose to record his opposition to the declaration of war. In 1940 Woodsworth won his last election with a sharply reduced majority. He was already weakened by a stroke and died in the spring of 1942.
  • Second Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=15712
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186344253/james_shaver-woodsworth