George Armstrong (April 17, 1870 – February 13, 1956) was a politician and labour activist in
Manitoba
Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...
, Canada. He served in the
Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (french: Assemblée législative du Manitoba) is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at provincial gener ...
from 1920 to 1922, and is notable as the only member of 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 ...
ever to serve in that institution.
History
Armstrong was born in
East York
East York is a former administrative district and municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a semi-autonomous borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toron ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, and educated in
Ellesmere. He trained as a carpenter, and practiced his trade 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 749,6 ...
. Armstrong was a member of the Fair Wage Board for Manitoba.
He first ran for the Manitoba legislature in the
1910 provincial election, in the constituency of
Winnipeg West. At the time, the
Socialist Party
Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...
represented the left-wing of the labour movement in Manitoba, with the reformist
Manitoba Labour Party
The Manitoba Labour Party (MLP) was a reformist, non- Marxist labour party in Manitoba, Canada. It was created in early May 1910 as a successor to the province's second Independent Labour Party (1906–08). Former Member of Parliament Arthur Puttee ...
(MLP) representing its moderate voice. Armstrong was known in this period as a leading figure in the SPC's "
impossibilist
Impossibilism is a Marxist theory that stresses the limited value of political, economic, and social reforms under capitalism. As a doctrine, impossibilism views the pursuit of such reforms as counterproductive to the goal of achieving socialism a ...
" wing, opposing any cooperation with moderate labour. In electoral terms, the Socialist Party was a marginal force in the city. Armstrong received 246 votes in Winnipeg West, against 2,578 for the victorious candidate,
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
Thomas Johnson.
In the
1914 provincial election, Armstrong ran in
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" against
Fred Dixon, an independent candidate supported by both the Liberals and the
Labour Representation Committee, a successor to the MLP. A Conservative candidate also contested the seat. Armstrong and his supporters disrupted Dixon's rallies throughout the campaign, accusing him of being a "fake" in his advocacy of working-class causes. Dixon's supporters, in turn, argued that the SPC was receiving help from the Conservatives to split the labour vote. Armstrong finished a distant third with 928 votes, while Dixon received 8,205 votes for a convincing victory.
Armstrong ran against Dixon again in the
1915 election, and again lost by a significant margin.
Winnipeg General Strike
The
Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 brought Armstrong and the SPC into cooperation with the city's labour movement. Along with other prominent labour organizers in the city, Armstrong was brought to trial after the strike's suppression on charges of seditious conspiracy. He was convicted, and spent almost two years in prison with fellow strikers such as
William Ivens
William Ivens (June 28, 1878 – June 20, 1957) was a religious and political figure in Manitoba, Canada. He was a leading figure in the Winnipeg General Strike,, and subsequently served as a Labour member of the Manitoba legislature from 192 ...
and
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 ...
. Many observers at the time, and many since, have regarded the charges against the strikers as unjust and politically motivated.
Even as the Socialist Party was declining in the rest of the country, the spirit of labour unity generated by the strike and the arrests brought the SPC in Winnipeg into a temporary alliance with the city's other labour parties. Armstrong, previously an opponent of "popular front" strategies, became the SPC's star candidate on Winnipeg's united labour list for the
1920 provincial election.
Election
For this election, following a change in the province's electoral laws, Winnipeg became a
single constituency which elected ten members to the legislature by
single transferable vote
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 ...
(STV). Labour and the SPC joined with two other parties for a slate of ten candidates, and ran a united campaign. Armstrong, still serving his prison sentence, finished third on the first count and was declared elected to the city's eighth position on the final count. He served in the legislature with the labour group under F. J. Dixon's leadership. Despite their philosophical differences, Dixon and Armstrong were able to cooperate with one another in this period.
The Socialist Party of Canada split in 1921, with many of its members joining the newly formed
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
. Armstrong remained a member of the SPC, even though the party was having difficulty maintaining a national presence by this time. During the
1922 provincial election, Armstrong was frequently heckled by Communist candidates who accused him of being a "sell out" to the
social gospel
The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean envir ...
lers in the mainstream labour movement. He finished ninth on the first count, but fell behind on transfers and failed to win a seat. The SPC ceased to exist a few years later, and Armstrong withdrew from provincial politics for a time.
Socialist Party of Canada (WSM)
Armstrong ran for the Manitoba legislature again in the
1932 provincial election as the candidate of the
Socialist Party of Canada (WSM)
The Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) is a socialist political party in Canada, affiliated with the World Socialist Movement.
It was founded in June 1931 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by British Columbian politician Phyllis Corriveau.
The party adopted ...
. He was unsuccessful, finishing nineteenth on the first count and being eliminated on the tenth.
Armstrong was also a popular figure in his carpenter's union, even though his views were to left most other members. In his later years, he relocated from Manitoba to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, George
1870 births
1956 deaths
Members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba
People from East York, Toronto
Socialist Party of Canada candidates in Manitoba provincial elections
Canadian carpenters
People of the Winnipeg general strike
Canadian expatriates in the United States