Seymour Farmer

Seymour James Farmer (June 20, 1878 – January 16, 1951) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada.[1] He served as Winnipeg MLA from 1922 to 1949. During this time he also served as mayor of Winnipeg 1923-1924[2] and later as city councillor in the late 1920s and in the 1930s. He was the leader of the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1935 to 1947.[3] He served as a cabinet minister in Manitoba's WWII wartime coalition government.

Farmer was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of Seymour Farmer and Bessie Alexander Sander, and was educated there. He moved to Canada in 1900[2] and worked as a railway clerk. In 1910, he was Fred Dixon's campaign manager in the latter's unsuccessful bid for election to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. He became an accountant for the International Grain Company in 1913, and retained this position until 1927.[3] Farmer married Lydia Gwendoline Ashton.[2]

Along with Dixon, Farmer opposed conscription during the First World War. During the Conscription Crisis of 1917, he was nominated by the Anti-Conscription League to contest the federal riding of Winnipeg Centre in the 1917 federal election. He withdrew from the contest so as not to split the anti-conscriptionist vote between a Laurier Liberal and himself.

Farmer supported the Winnipeg General Strike. After the strike's end, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1919 and 1920.[2]

In December 1920, he was one of the founding members of Manitoba's Independent Labour Party.  He considered running for the federal riding of Winnipeg Centre in the 1921 election, but withdrew in favour of J.S. Woodsworth.

Farmer was elected the 30th mayor of Winnipeg in 1922 and 1923.[2] He could not command majority support from the city's councillors though. He was defeated by Ralph Webb in 1924. He later served as a councillor in 1928 and 1929, and again in the 1930s.

Farmer was also elected to the provincial legislature for Winnipeg in the 1922 election, along with fellow ILP members Fred Dixon, John Queen and William Ivens. Winnipeg at the time was a 10-seat district electing MLAs through STV.

He was re-elected in the 1927 and 1932 elections,[1] and replaced Queen as party leader in 1935.[3] At the time the Independent Labour Party and the CCF were both in existence and in a partial merger.

Farmer's early years as party leader were marked by conflict between the ILP and the newly formed Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. In 1933, the ILP had affiliated with the CCF and agreed to support the CCF's skeletal network in the province. By 1936, the CCF had grown into a more powerful organization, and many ILP members were concerned about their autonomy. There were ideological differences between the two groups: the ILP was exclusively a labour party, whereas the CCF wanted to reach out to farmers as well.

For the provincial election of 1936, Farmer and other candidates campaigned under the "ILP-CCF" banner. The Social Credit movement, with its victory in Alberta under its sails, tried for success in Manitoba. Farmer responded by writing pamphlet "Social Credit or Social Ownership".[4] In it he called for social ownership of utilities and industries and for a Social Dividend which was to be arrived at in different means than the Social Credit dividend espoused by Alberta SC Premier Aberhart. ILP/CCF increased their representation to seven seats.

After the election, a group of disgruntled ILP members forced a temporary disaffiliation from the CCF. Pressure from David Lewis and J.S. Woodsworth brought the two parties back in alignment, but their relationship remained tenuous.

At the start of World War II, Farmer approved of federal CCF leader J.S. Woodsworth's pacifist stance in the House of Commons of Canada. Farmer endorsed the CCF's call to conscript "wealth rather than men" for the war effort. Most of the ILP supported an all-out war effort, however. This exacerbated tensions between the groups. The ILP finally dissolved in 1943, after its internal operations were taken over by CCF loyalists.

Throughout the 1930s, Manitoba Premier John Bracken had attempted to bring the province's opposition parties into a "non-partisan" coalition government. Bracken's Progressives absorbed the provincial Liberals in 1932, but the other parties turned down his requests on two separate occasions. With the start of the war, however, "non-party" government became a more viable option. The Conservatives and Social Credit joined the government in 1940; despite opposition from David Lewis, Farmer convinced the CCF to do the same.

Farmer argued (somewhat dubiously) that Bracken was willing to adopt labour-friendly policies, and that the CCF would benefit more from joining government than from being the sole group in opposition. He also argued that an all-party government would defer the next provincial election for a year, and allow the CCF more time to organize. Lewis eventually resigned himself to the alliance, and the CCF entered Manitoba's government in late 1940. Farmer was the first member of a social democratic party in Canada to receive a cabinet portfolio, being sworn in as Minister of Labour on 4 November.

By any measurement, the CCF's tenure in government was a disaster for the party. While the Conservatives were fully integrated into the management of the province, Social Credit and the CCF were marginalized. Bracken forced Farmer's labour legislation to face free votes in the legislature; these soon took the form of party votes, with the CCF invariably on the losing side.

The Manitoba CCF was demoralized in the election of 1941. Keeping an earlier pledge, it only contested ten ridings, and fell from seven to three members.

Support for the CCF rose nationally throughout 1942, and there was a growing desire among many in the Manitoba party to leave the coalition. Farmer resigned from cabinet in December 1942, and the CCF formally left the government the following year.[3]

Farmer continued as party leader through the election of 1945. This campaign was a disappointment to the party—although it received more votes than the governing Liberal-Progressives (35% to 33%), it won only ten seats in the legislature. Farmer resigned as party leader in June 1947, and was replaced the following year by E.A. Hansford.

Farmer did not contest the election of 1949. He died on January 16, 1951.[1]