James Simpson (politician)
James Simpson (born December 14, 1873 in Lindal-in-Furness, † September 24, 1938 in Toronto ) was a Canadian journalist, trade unionist, politician of the left and 44th mayor of Toronto.
In the 1890s Simpson rose from printer to journalist . As early as 1892 he became politically active, in which he was one of the 27 members of the union organization Typographical Union and took part in a strike against the Toronto News . As a result of this strike, he co-founded the Evening Star , the precursor to the Toronto Star . Simpson was a city politics reporter for the Toronto Star for ten years . From 1904 to 1909, 1916/1917 and 1924 to 1936 he was vice-president of the trade union organization Trades and Labor Congress of Canada . In the 1920s he stood several times as a Labor candidate for the Canadian House of Commons , but could not win the election. In the 1930s he became a leading figure in the Ontario New Democratic Party and in 1934 he ran for mayoral elections, which he won. He became the first social democratic mayor of Toronto. Simpson campaigned for a boycott of the 1936 Summer Olympics to protest against the Third Reich's regime . Despite his political stance, Simpson was an extreme anti-Catholic, which cost him further support from the Toronto Star and thus prevented re-election as mayor. James Simpson died in 1938 as a result of his car colliding with a tram.
literature
- Ian McKay, Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-1920. Between the Lines, Toronto 2008, ISBN 978-1897071496 .
Web links
- James Simpson ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bruce Kidd: Early Boycotts , Globe and Mail, Aug. 18, 1980
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Simpson, James |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian journalist, trade unionist, left-wing politician and 44th Mayor of Toronto |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 14, 1873 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lindal-in-Furness |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 24, 1938 |
| Place of death | Toronto |