Arthur Puttee
Encyclopedia
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) in the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
.
Puttee was a printer by training. Born in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, he immigrated to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in 1888. He settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
in 1891. He helped found the local trade union council, the Winnipeg Labour Party
Winnipeg Labour Party
The Winnipeg Labour Party was a reformist organization in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, representing labour interests. Founded in 1896, it was based on an earlier Winnipeg organization known as the Independent Labour Party .The party initially received support from both...
(WLP) and a left-wing newspaper called The Voice, which he edited from 1899 until 1918. He was also a founding member of Winnipeg's first English-language Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
Church.
When Winnipeg's Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
MP, R.W. Jamieson, died in February 1899, Puttee called for the nomination of a Labour candidate to contest the vacant seat in a by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
(which was finally held on January 25, 1900). The trade union council agreed, and with resources promised from local unions, nominated Puttee as its candidate against Liberal E.D. Martin.
Puttee's chances for election benefitted from a serious division in the local Liberal ranks. Martin had been nominated by a minority faction in the party rebelling against Clifford Sifton
Clifford Sifton
Sir Clifford Sifton, PC, KCMG was a Canadian politician best known for being Minister of the Interior under Sir Wilfrid Laurier...
, a powerful member of Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Wilfrid Laurier
Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, GCMG, PC, KC, baptized Henri-Charles-Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh Prime Minister of Canada from 11 July 1896 to 6 October 1911....
's Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
and the leading Liberal spokesman in the western provinces. Many Sifton loyalists unofficially supported Puttee against Martin. There was no Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
candidate in the race; the Conservative organization in the city supported Martin.
Puttee ran on a platform promoting public ownership of "all natural monopolies" and other reformist
Reformism
Reformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...
measures. The basic issue of the campaign was whether labour had a right to have its own representatives in parliament.
In a narrow two-way contest, Puttee prevailed by a margin of eight votes (2431 to 2423). Puttee ran for re-election later that year in the 1900 election
Canadian federal election, 1900
The Canadian federal election of 1900 was held on November 7 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 9th Parliament of Canada. As a result of the election, the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, was re-elected to a second majority government, defeating the...
and won by a margin of 1,200 votes. Puttee again received unofficial Liberal support against Martin, who ran as an Independent with Conservative support.
Puttee remained in Parliament until the 1904 election
Canadian federal election, 1904
The Canadian federal election of 1904 was held on November 3 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 10th Parliament of Canada...
, when he was defeated. There were several reasons for this setback.
As an MP, Puttee came into contact with British Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MPs such as Keir Hardie
Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie, Sr. , was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
and Ramsay Macdonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
, and promoted the new British Labour Party (then known as the Labour Representation Committee) as a model to emulate. In doing so, he repudiated Marxists
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
within the Winnipeg Labour Party, alienating the city's more radical and revolutionary socialists. The WLP suffered a severe split, and many socialists and radical trade unionists left in 1902 to join the Canadian Socialist League. They ultimately formed the Socialist Party of Manitoba, which had a much more radical program than Puttee's broad-based WLP.
A second reason for Puttee's defeat was the loss of Liberal support, as the Sifton loyalists succeeded in nominating their candidate, D.W. Bole. The Conservatives ran William Sanford Evans
William Sanford Evans
William Sanford Evans was a Manitoba politician. Between 1933 and 1936, he was the leader of that province's Conservative Party caucus....
, later a leader of the provincial Conservative Party
Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba
The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is the only right wing political party in Manitoba, Canada. It is also the official opposition party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba.-Origins and early years:...
.
The Liberals made strenuous efforts to appeal to the working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
through the dispensation of patronage among leading trade unionists, and by attacking the trade union council as being radical and uninterested in the needs of ordinary workers. Puttee was painted as a dangerous "revolutionist" backed by "assassins". Bole won the election; Puttee finished in third place.
Out of office, Puttee returned to his newspaper and continued to agitate for independent working class politics. He became chairman of a new party, the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party (in Manitoba) (I)
Before World War I, there were at least two organizations in Winnipeg calling themselves the Independent Labour Party. The first of these was set up by British trade unionists in 1895, and collapsed soon thereafter....
, based on the British model. This ILP proved to be short-lived, collapsing in an internal feud after some of its members attempted to define the party as "socialist".
In 1910, Puttee endorsed Fred Dixon
Fred Dixon
Fred Dixon was a Manitoba politician, and was for several years the dominant figure in the province's mainstream labour movement.Born in Englefield, England, Dixon was not a socialist...
as a candidate for the provincial legislature, and helped create the short-lived Manitoba Labour Party
Manitoba Labour Party
The Manitoba Labour Party 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 . Former Member of Parliament A.W. Puttee was a leading MLP organizer...
to support him. Dixon was defeated, due to opposition from the Socialist Party of Canada
Socialist Party of Canada (in Manitoba)
The Socialist Party of Canada was a revolutionary Marxist organization, founded in 1904 as a merger of the Socialist Party of British Columbia and related groups in Manitoba and Ontario, Canada....
. Puttee also created a provincial Labour Representation Committee in the 1910s, and used The Voice to endorse labour candidates in the elections of 1914 and 1915. In 1918, Puttee helped to create the Dominion Labour Party
Dominion Labour Party (in Manitoba)
The Dominion Labour Party was a reformist labour party, formed in Canada in 1918. The party enjoyed itsgreatest success in the province of Manitoba....
, which was intended to consolidate labourist activities in various cities throughout the country.
Ultimately, Puttee's conservatism sidelined him as the labour movement came under the influence of socialist ideas. He opposed labour militancy and the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
in particular. In 1918, the Winnipeg Trades and Labour Council withdrew its patronage of the Voice due to the paper's moderate tone, and began publishing a new weekly, the Western Labour News, effectively ending Puttee's influence over the labour movement.
By the time of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, Puttee was a marginal figure sidelined by younger, more militant leaders such as J.S. Woodsworth and Abraham Albert Heaps
Abraham Albert Heaps
Abraham Albert Heaps was a Canadian politician and labour leader.Born in Leeds, England, Heaps immigrated to Canada in 1911 and worked in Winnipeg as an upholsterer. He was one of the leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 and was a Labor alderman on the Winnipeg City Council from 1917...
. He continued to operate in the city's DLP organization, however, and his conservatism was a primary reason for a split in the party in 1920. Puttee sought the DLP's nomination for Mayor of Winnipeg in 1920, but was defeated by Seymour J. Farmer
Seymour J. Farmer
Seymour James Farmer was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as the 30th mayor of Winnipeg from 1923 to 1924, and was later the leader of the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1935 to 1947. In the latter capacity, he became the first socialist politician in Canada to...
. Puttee's supporters subsequently asserted their control over the party, causing most of its leading figures (including Dixon) to separate and form a new Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party (in Manitoba) (II)
Prior to 1920, there were a number of groups in Winnipeg which called themselves the "Independent Labour Party". For information on these groups, see Independent Labour Party ....
. The DLP ceased to be an effective organization after this time.
Puttee ran for the Manitoba legislature in the provincial election of 1922
Manitoba general election, 1922
Manitoba's general election of July 18, 1922 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada.As in the previous election of 1920, the city of Winnipeg elected ten members by the single transferable ballot...
in the riding of Winnipeg -- not as a Labour candidate, but as a Progressive, aligned with the United Farmers of Manitoba. He does not appear to have put much effort into this campaign, and received only 135 votes on the first count, finishing 38th out of 43 candidates. Winnipeg elected ten members via preferential balloting, and Puttee was eliminated after the eighth count. He did not play a significant role in politics after this time.