Robert Hugh Carlin (February 10,1901 –October 22,1991) was a Canadian labour union organizer and politician,who represented the electoral district of Sudbury in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1943 to 1948. He was a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section) (CCF).
Born in Buckingham,Quebec in 1901, [1] Carlin moved to Cobalt in 1916 to work in the silver mines. He joined the Western Federation of Miners as a union representative,and was involved in the 1919 Cobalt Miners' Strike. He later began working at Teck Hughes in Kirkland Lake,but was fired in 1940 along with 36 other miners. He remained active as a union organizer,coordinating a major Labour Day demonstration against Teck Hughes in 1941.
He subsequently moved to Sudbury,where he became president of Mine Mill Local 598,and won election to the Legislative Assembly in the 1943 election and was re-elected in the 1945 election.
Following the 1945 election,the leadership of the CCF launched a purge of suspected Communists within the party and its supporters in the trade union movement attempted to eliminate suspected Communist influence in the union movement targeting,in particular,Mine Mill. National CCF secretary David Lewis and Charles Millard of the Canadian Congress of Labour decided to root the communists out of organized labour's decision-making bodies. [2] Their first target was the CCF riding association in Sudbury,and its affiliated Mine Mill Local 598, [3] even though the local was not under Communist control:out of 11,000 dues-paying members,very few were communists (less than 100). [4] Over the next twenty years,a fierce battle was waged to take over Local 598 by Millard's United Steel Workers of America. Steel won.
Carlin was loyal to his union,Local 598,putting him in conflict with CCF establishment in both Toronto and Ottawa. [5]
Charles Millard,Ontario CCF leader Ted Jolliffe,and David Lewis did not directly accuse Carlin of being a communist. Instead,they attacked him for not dealing with the perceived problem of communists in the Sudbury Mine Mill local. Local 598 was built by both Communists and CCFers,with the CCFers firmly in control of the executive. Carlin's first loyalty was to the men and women who helped build Local 598,regardless of their political affiliation. This is what got him in trouble with Lewis and Jolliffe. So Lewis and Jolliffe made the case to expel him from the Ontario CCF caucus at a special meeting of the CCF executive and the legislative caucus in Toronto on April 13,1948. [6] In essence,Carlin became a casualty of Steel's plans to raid Mine,Mill. The CCF lost the seat in the 1948 Ontario election,placing fourth to Welland Gemmell of the Progressive Conservatives. Carlin,running as an independent,finished a very close second. [7] It wasn't until the CCF changed its name to the New Democratic Party (NDP) and the Mine Mill/Steelworkers war was over in 1967,that another social democratic candidate —Elie Martel in Sudbury East —was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from the city. [8]
Carlin then stood as a Farmer-Labour candidate in the 1949 federal election in the federal riding of Sudbury,losing to Liberal candidate Léo Gauthier but placing ahead of Willard Evoy,the CCF candidate.
He subsequently returned to labour organizing in Sudbury,becoming a bargaining agent for the Steelworkers Local 6500 from 1962 until his retirement.
On May 27,1978,he was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws degree by Laurentian University. The degree was awarded for his pioneering work in the early days of the union movement in Northern Ontario. [9]
Carlin died in Sudbury at the age of 90. [10]
David Lewis was a Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from 1936 to 1950 and one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1961. In 1962,he was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP),in the House of Commons of Canada,for the York South electoral district. While an MP,he was elected the NDP's national leader and served from 1971 until 1975. After his defeat in the 1974 federal election,he stepped down as leader and retired from politics. He spent his last years as a university professor at Carleton University,and as a travel correspondent for the Toronto Star. In retirement,he was named to the Order of Canada for his political service. After suffering from cancer for a long time,he died in Ottawa in 1981.
There have been various groups in Canada that have nominated candidates under the label Labour Party or Independent Labour Party,or other variations from the 1870s until the 1960s. These were usually local or provincial groups using the Labour Party or Independent Labour Party name,backed by local labour councils made up of many union locals in a particular city,or individual trade unions. There was an attempt to create a national Canadian Labour Party in the late 1910s and in the 1920s,but these were only partly successful.
Edward Bigelow Jolliffe was a Canadian social democratic politician and lawyer from Ontario. He was the first leader of the Ontario section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and leader of the Official Opposition in the Ontario Legislature during the 1940s and 1950s. He was a Rhodes Scholar in the mid-1930s,and came back to Canada to help the CCF,after his studies were complete and being called to the bar in England and Ontario. After politics,he practised labour law in Toronto and would eventually become a labour adjudicator. In retirement,he moved to British Columbia,where he died in 1998.
The Ontario New Democratic Party elects its leaders by secret ballot of the party members and/or their delegates at leadership elections,as did its predecessor,the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. The party leader can be challenged for the leadership at the party's biennial convention. The Ontario New Democratic Party is a social democratic political party in Ontario,Canada.
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation –The Farmer-Labor Party of Ontario,more commonly known as the Ontario CCF,was a democratic socialist provincial political party in Ontario that existed from 1932 to 1961. It was the provincial wing of the federal Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). The party had no leader in the beginning,and was governed by a provincial council and executive. The party's first Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) was elected by voters in the 1934 Ontario general election. In the 1937 general election,no CCF members were elected to the Ontario Legislature. In 1942,the party elected Toronto lawyer Ted Jolliffe as its first leader. He led the party to within a few seats of forming the government in the 1943 general election;instead,it formed the Official Opposition. In that election,the first two women were elected to the Ontario Legislature as CCFers:Agnes Macphail and Rae Luckock. The 1945 election was a setback,as the party lost most of its seats in the Legislature,including Jolliffe's seat. The party again became the Official Opposition after the 1948 general election,and defeated the Conservative premier George Drew in his seat,when Bill Temple unexpectedly won in the High Park constituency. The middle and late 1940s were the peak years for the Ontario CCF. After that time,its electoral performances were dismal,as it was reduced to a rump of two seats in the 1951 election,three seats in the 1955 election,and five seats in the 1959 election. Jolliffe stepped down as leader in 1953,and was replaced by Donald C. MacDonald.
Murray Cotterill was a Canadian trade union activist and organizer for the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF).
Elie Walter Martel is a former politician in Ontario,Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1967 to 1987,as a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP).
Samuel Lawrence was a Canadian politician and trade unionist. He was the first member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and subsequently served as Mayor of Hamilton,Ontario.
The 1945 Ontario general election was held on June 4,1945,to elect the 90 members of the 22nd Legislative Assembly of Ontario of the province of Ontario.
Charles Hibbert (Charlie) Millard was a Canadian trade union activist and politician.
George Burt was Canadian Director of the United Auto Workers (UAW/CAW) from 1939 to 1968.
Welland Stewart Gemmell was a Canadian politician,who represented the electoral district of Sudbury in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1948 until his death in 1954.
This is a timeline of labour issues and events in Canada.
Michael James MacDonald was a union leader,coal miner,volunteer firefighter and politician in Nova Scotia.
Michael Solski was a Canadian union leader,politician,and author in the Canadian province of Ontario. He was president of the International Union of Mine,Mill,and Smelter Workers Local 598 from 1952 to 1959,at a time when it was the largest single local in Canada. He later served as the mayor of Coniston (1962–1972) and of Nickel Centre (1973–1978). At the end of his career,he was the target of a failed assassination attempt.
William John Grummett was a Canadian politician. He represented the electoral district of Cochrane South in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1943 to 1955 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF).
Charles Alfred Strange was a politician in Ontario,Canada. He was a CCF member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1943 to 1945 who represented the riding of Brantford.
The economy of Greater Sudbury,Ontario was dominated by the mining industry for much of the city's history. In recent decades,however,the city has diversified to establish itself as an emerging centre in a variety of industries,including finance,business,tourism,health care,education,government,film and television production,and science and technology research. Many of these industries reflect the city's position as a regional service centre for Northeastern Ontario.
The following is a timeline of the history of labour organizations in communities in and around Greater Sudbury,Ontario,Canada. Listings for incorporated townships which were later amalgamated with the City of Sudbury are noted separately.
Lloyd F. K. Fell was a Canadian politician in Ontario,trade unionist,and educator on the subject of alcoholism.