Harold Frederick Lawrence (December 17, 1887 – 1953) was a politician 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 1932 to 1936. Lawrence was born and educated in

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011, it had a ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1887, and came to Canada in 1907. He worked as a railroad accountant for the

Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN i ...

, and became involved in the provincial labour movement in 1915. From 1917 to 1921, he served as general chairman of the Canadian Brotherhood Railroad Employees Western Lines. Lawrence also became active in Manitoba's

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 ...

(ILP), and was first elected to the provincial legislature under its banner in the 1932 general election. Running in St. Boniface, he defeated longtime

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 i ...

representative

Joseph Bernier Joseph Bernier (August 16, 1874—June 8, 1951) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba on four occasions between 1900 and 1932. Bernier was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ma ...

by 504 votes. Bernier actually defeated Lawrence by six votes on first preferences, but lost on transfers; the province was using the

single transferable ballot 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 ...

at the time. For the 1936 provincial election, the ILP ran candidates in an alliance with the newly formed

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 ...

(CCF). Lawrence again finished second on first preferences, but was declared elected on the third count over

Liberal-Progressive Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1925 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics, there was no Liberal-Progressive party: it was an alliance between two parties. In Manitoba, a party existe ...

candidate L.P. Gagnon. After the election, the provincial ILP organization was gradually superseded by the CCF. In 1940, the Manitoba CCF joined an all-party

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

. Lawrence sat with his colleagues as a government backbencher, but did not seek re-election in the provincial election of 1941. He died in 1953.

Lloyd Stinson Lloyd Cleworth Stinson (February 29, 1904 – August 28, 1976) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada, and the leader of that province's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1953 to 1959. Although widely regarded as a capable leader, he ...

, who led the Manitoba CCF from 1952 to 1959, once described Lawrence as a "rough-and-ready railwayman".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Harold 1887 births 1953 deaths Independent Labour Party (Manitoba, 1920) MLAs Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MLAs 20th-century Canadian politicians People from Burton upon Trent British emigrants to Canada