Cleric, MP (1921-1925), MP (1925-1926), MP (1926-1930), MP (1930-1935), MP (1935-1940), MP (1940-1942).
Born near Islington, Ontario on 29 July 1874, son of Reverend James Woodsworth and Esther Josephine Shaver (c1847-1925), he was educated at Wesley College (BA 1896), University of Toronto, and Oxford University. He became active in social reform and threatened to leave the Methodist Church in 1907, being persuaded to remain by being put in charge of All People’s Mission in the North End of Winnipeg. There Woodsworth worked chiefly with new immigrants, his efforts and ideas discussed in his books Strangers Within Our Gates (1909) and My Neighbour (1911).
While sympathetic to the plight of new Canadians, he feared their ability to assimilate into Canadian society and the ways in which extensive immigration from eastern Europe would change Canada. A pacifist and opponent of national-service registration during the First World War, he served at a mission on the Sechelt Peninsula in British Columbia before finally leaving the church in 1918. He worked briefly on the Vancouver docks before embarking on a lecture tour in 1919 that brought him to Winnipeg in the midst of the Winnipeg General Strike. After becoming editor of the strikers’ newspaper, he was arrested on charges of seditious libel and later released. Although his involvement in the Winnipeg General Strike was minimal, his strike work and his subsequent arrest made Woodsworth’s reputation among supporters of labour, and he was elected to Parliament from Winnipeg North Centre in 1921 as an Independent Labour candidate, serving the riding until his death, being re-elected in 1925, 1930, 1935, and 1940.
He and his fellow labourite Abraham Albert Heaps actually held the balance of power in the 1926 House of Commons, and they forced the King government to pass old-age pension legislation. Woodsworth was involved in the creation of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and became House Leader of the seven CCF members elected to Ottawa in 1935. He was an ardent socialist and social reformer of the moral perfectionist variety. Because of his pacifism, he was forced to step down as leader of the CCF when war again broke out in 1939.
On 7 September 1904, he married Lucy Lillian Staples (1874-1976) and they had six children: Winona Grace Woodsworth, Belva Elizabeth Woodsworth (1907-1983, wife of Ralph Sharpe Staples), Charles James Woodsworth, Ralph Staples Woodsworth (1911-1999), Bruce Woodsworth (1914-1999), Howard Woodsworth (1916-1987).
Although he was re-elected to Parliament in 1940, he was already quite ill and died soon after at his home in Vancouver, British Columbia on 21 March 1942. The Woodsworth Papers are in Library and Archives Canada although there are also some papers at the Archives of Manitoba.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Woodsworth House (60 Maryland Street, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Woodsworth House (464 Stella Avenue, Winnipeg)
J. S. Woodsworth - Personal Recollections by Grace MacInnis
MHS Transactions Series 3, Number 24, 1967-68 SeasonThe Methodist Church and the "European Foreigners" of Winnipeg: The All People's Mission, 1889-1914 by G. N. Emery
MHS Transactions, Series 3, Number 28, 1971-72 SeasonAn Interview with Grace MacInnis by Allen Mills
Manitoba History, Number 7, Spring 1984Woodsworth House Honours Shirley Olson and Phil Fontaine by Karen Botting and Ruth Swan
Manitoba History, Number 22, Autumn 1991J. S. Woodsworth: A Man to Remember by Grace MacInnis (1953).
A Prophet in Politics by Kenneth McNaught (1959).
Pioneers of Manitoba by Robert Harvey (1970).
Fool for Christ: The Political Thought of J. S. Woodsworth by Allen Mills (1991).
A Prophet at Home, 52 pp. ISBN 0-9697601-6-7.
Birth registrations [Wilona Grace Woodsworth, Charles James Woodsworth, Bruce Woodsworth, Ralph Staples Woodsworth], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1911 Canada census, Automated Genealogy.
Who’s Who in Western Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men and Women of Western Canada, Volume 1, edited by C. W. Parker, Vancouver: Canadian Press Association, 1911.
Death registration [James Shaver Woodsworth], British Columbia Vital Statistics.
“Death of J. S. Woodsworth removes colorful figure,” Winnipeg Tribune, 23 March 1942, page 19.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Death registration [Belva Elizabeth Staples, Bruce Woodsworth, Ralph Staples Woodsworth], British Columbia Vital Statistics.
Lucy Lillian Staples Woodsworth, FindAGrave.
We thank Peter Staples, grandson of J. S. Woodsworth, for additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 28 March 2023
Memorable Manitobans
This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.
Search the collection by word or phrase, name, place, occupation or other text:
Custom SearchBrowse surnames beginning with:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | ZBrowse deaths occurring in:
1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024
Send corrections and additions to this page
to the Memorable Manitobans Administrator at biographies@mhs.mb.caCriteria for Memorable Manitobans | Suggest a Memorable Manitoban | Firsts | Acknowledgements
Help us keep
history alive!
