Frederick John Dixon (January 20, 1881 – March 18, 1931) was a

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

politician, and was for several years the dominant figure in the province's mainstream labour and

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

Single Tax Georgist movements. Also a proponent of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

, he served as MLA in the

Manitoba Legislature The Legislature of Manitoba is the legislature of the province of Manitoba, Canada. Today, the legislature is made of two elements: the King of Canada in Right of Manitoba, represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, and the unicameral ...

from 1914 to 1923.

Biography

Born in 1881 at Englefield in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county of Berkshire, Dixon was influenced by the reformist labour politics of his home country, and also favoured the

single tax A single tax is a system of taxation based mainly or exclusively on one tax, typically chosen for its special properties, often being a tax on land value. The idea of a single tax on land values was proposed independently by John Locke and Bar ...

ideas of

. He apprenticed as a gardener in England. Dixon arrived in

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

in 1903, settling in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

. He apprenticed as a

draftsman A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans for ...

and worked as an engraver. He became a member of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

He opposed the efforts of some party members to declare the ILP as socialist and have it endorse widespread nationalization. This controversy led to the disintegration of the ILP in 1908. Dixon also wrote a weekly column in the Winnipeg labour weekly ''The Voice''. Dixon and his friend Seymour Farmer, later mayor of Winnipeg, moved their involvement to the League for Taxation of Land Values (the Single Tax programme) and the League for Direct Legislation, under which people would have the right of referendum, initiative and recall. Dixon first ran for the provincial legislature in the 1910 provincial election as a candidate of the Manitoba Labour Party in Winnipeg Centre. He was also supported by the provincial

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, whose platform he generally supported. Dixon's centrist labourism brought about opposition from the

Socialist Party of Canada The Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) was a political party that existed from 1904 to 1925, led by E. T. Kingsley. It published the socialist newspaper ''Western Clarion''. History Establishment The founding of the Socialist Party of Canada bega ...

, which ran a spoiler candidate against him. Dixon lost to

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Thomas Taylor by 73 votes; the SPC polled 99. After the defeat, he again devoted himself to the cause of Direct Legislation, He was a respected speaker for the Direct Legislation League. He moved to Moose Jaw and worked for the Saskatchewan Direct Legislation League. In 1914, he married Winona Margaret Flett, a suffragist. The SPC's actions provoked a backlash among Winnipeg trade unionists. That and his high profile among farmers due to his Direct Legislation League work increased his popularity. He ran as an independent in the provincial election of 1914, in one of the two separate elections held in Winnipeg Centre. He received support from both the Liberals and the Labour Representation Committee (a successor to the MLP). His platform included home rule for Winnipeg,

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

, public ownership of utilities, removal of subsidies for private enterprise (including lowering the tariff walls to imported manufactured goods) and a referendum on

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...

. Despite SPC and Conservative opposition, he took a majority of the votes and was elected for

Winnipeg Centre Winnipeg Centre (french: Winnipeg-Centre) is a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1917 to 1925 and since 1997. History This riding was originally created in 1914 f ...

"B". In the Legislative Assembly, Dixon helped force an investigation into corruption associated with the construction of new Manitoba legislative buildings. This led to the downfall of the Robson government in 1915. He was re-elected in the 1915 election, as an "Independent Progressive". During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Dixon emerged as one of the leading anti-conscriptionists in Winnipeg, and he defended the rights of

conscientious objectors A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objecti ...

to the war effort. These efforts placed him in conflict with the Manitoba Liberals, who generally supported the conscription policies of

Robert Borden Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I. Borde ...

's Unionist government. In March 1918, Dixon helped to found the first branch of the Dominion Labour Party in

and served as its first president. It was never a strong or centralized party but did pioneer the way to more developed leftist parties such as the CCF. The DLP subsequently branched out to other cities in the Canadian prairies. Dixon supported the strikers during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. He undoubtedly played an important role in legitimizing their efforts among the city's reformist labourites. After the editors of the ''Strike Bulletin'' were arrested, he published the ''Western Star and Enlightener''. Dixon was subsequently arrested and charged with

seditious libel Sedition and seditious libel were criminal offences under English common law, and are still criminal offences in Canada. Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection ...

for his statements in those publications. He defended himself in court and was found not guilty. In the provincial election of 1920, Dixon headed a united labour list in the city of

, which had been re-designed as a single constituency with ten members elected by

single transferable voting Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

. He easily topped the poll with 11,586 votes, almost 7000 more than his nearest Liberal competitor. There can be little doubt that Dixon was the most popular politician in the city at the time. His vote total was more than the quota required to win a seat and he was the first to be declared elected, his surplus votes then being transferred to other candidates. In Winnipeg, Dixon and another DLP candidate Rev. Ivens were elected alongside four Liberals, 2 Conservatives, a Social Democratic Party candidate and a Socialist Party of Canada candidate. Nine DLP MLAs, along with one member apiece from the SPC and SDPC, were elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1920. Dixon was the unquestioned leader of the labour parliamentary caucus. He cooperated with more left-wing figures, and kept the group reasonably united through to the election of 1922, although having to found a new party to do so. In late 1920, the DLP in Winnipeg was taken over by rightist labourites who had opposed the General Strike. Dixon led a walkout of DLP members, and was involved in founding the province's new

. The ILP became the primary voice of the parliamentary left in Manitoba, and later become part of the

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; french: Fédération du Commonwealth Coopératif, FCC); from 1955 the Social Democratic Party of Canada (''french: Parti social démocratique du Canada''), was a federal democratic socialistThe follo ...

. Dixon again topped the Winnipeg list in 1922, albeit by the reduced margin of almost 4000 votes over the nearest Liberal. The total labour caucus was reduced to six members, although Ivens and Dixon were both re-elected. In 1923, Dixon resigned as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. ...

following the death of his wife and two of his children.

John Queen John Queen (February 11, 1882 – July 15, 1946) was a labour activist and Manitoba politician who was a leader of the Winnipeg General Strike, for which he served a year in prison. He was a Labour city councillor in Winnipeg from 1916 to 19 ...

, formerly of the SDPC, became ILP leader in his place. Dixon spent the next few years working as a part-time insurance salesman. He co-authored "Seasonal Unemployment in Manitoba, A Report", in 1928.full text available online in Peel's Prairie Provinces website He died of cancer at the age of fifty, in 1931. The tragedies of the last years of his life robbed Canada's labour movement of one of its most dynamic voices.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, F J 1881 births 1931 deaths Independent Labour Party (Manitoba, 1920) MLAs Georgist politicians People from Englefield, Berkshire People of the Winnipeg general strike English emigrants to Canada