Js Woodsworth
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Our Canadian identity is not just exclusive to hockey, harsh winters, great rock stars, Mounties, beavers and poutine. Our Canadian identity was constructed by people that have contributed to our nationalistic views of a mosaic culture that embraces each member of society, regardless of their class distinction. Canadians resent being dismissed as simply just a continuation of Americans to the North. The fundamental distinction Canadians have from Americans is their social welfare and humanitarian programmes. This distinction is also exemplified all throughout the world. Canadian social democratic leader James Shaver Woodsworth contributed immensely to Canadas famous and distinctive social welfare system that includes our remarkable humanitarian minded programs such as universal health care, fair immigration policies and old age pensions. James Shaver Woodsworth is not only a great human being but also a great Canadian.
The majority of the world sees Canada as a tolerant, compassionate, and just society. #A study done in the 1970s showed the Canadian experiment in diversity to be widely recognized and admired. Foreigners perceived countries acting “like Canada” to be generous, modest, and peace-promoters. Countries acting “unlike Canada”, such as the United States of America were described as being selfish, irrational, and expansionist or violent. In order for a society to be compassionate and just it must have in place a great social welfare system. An extreme capitalist society like the United States is not viewed as generous, modest and peaceful. We Canadians view our land differently than do the Americans. Americans conquer their country. Canadians civilize theirs with their social equality systems put in place by amazing men like Woodsworth.
James Shaver Woodsworth helped define Canada for what it is, a nation of equitable compromises between varieties of cultural, social, and economic ideals. This balancing of interests has been particularly pronounced after World War II, a time when an abundance of immigrants arrived in Canada and the social welfare system was patched together thanks to this great Canadian.
James Shaver Woodsworth was born July 29, 1874 on a farm near Toronto, Ontario and then moved to Brandon, Manitoba in 1882. There his father served as Superintendent of Methodist Missions in Western Canada. When he grew up, Woodsworth trained for the Methodist ministry. He was ordained in 1896 and served for two years as a preacher before going to study in Toronto and then Oxford, England.
Discovering the East London slums, he wrote, “It was really sickening to see the poverty and distress” (MacInnis, 1953 p.36). He returned to Canada, where he worked with urban immigrant slum dwellers. He put his ideologies to work and was not just all talk like many of our political American counterparts. He described the poverty and suffering of immigrant workers in a number of books, including “Strangers within Our Gates” (1909) and “My Neighbour” (1911). Woodsworth was an accomplished Writer, Minister, Politician, Union Leader, Human Rights Activist and Pacifist.
By 1914, he had become a democratic socialist and he opposed the First World War as a product of capitalism and imperialist competition.# Because of this, and particularly his opposition to conscription, the Canadian government fired him from his job at the Bureau of Social Research in 1917. He then relocated to Vancouver, where he worked as a longshoreman. He organized for the recently formed Federated Labour Party.
In 1918, because of its support for the War and position on social issues, he resigned from the Methodist Church and began a tour as a speaker and advocate for working people which made up the majority of Canadas population.#
Another important reason Woodsworth should be considered a great Canadian is because he created very important cultural religious differences between Canada, the United States and the rest of the world. In 1906, he presented to the Manitoba Conference of the Methodist Church a letter explaining why he will resign from the ministry. He did not agree with several Methodist teachings such as the Methodist prohibition of theater, horseracing, lotteries and dancing. The most important aspect he did not agree with was the churches
indifference towards the plight of the rapidly growing Canadian working class cities. Woodsworth believed the church was too elite and too quick to blame poverty on the laziness or drunkeness of the workers. Their business ethics were very quick to support the rich.
The Methodist religion is of a Calvinist nature and believes basically that if one is poor or unfotunate it is because one is not doing Gods work. It holds the belief that the rich are doing Gods work properly and they are not obligated to help the sinful poor of society. This belief is still very popular in the United States particullary in the Southern parts. It is common knowledge that there is a great amount of racisim, inequality and bigotry in the southern parts of the United States. It is the home of the infamous Klu Klux Klan and other extreme right-winged political organizations. The United States strict Calvinist Evangelical religion is another right winged movement that is considered oppressive by Canadian standards. James S. Woodworth disassociated from this movement because he recognized the injustice of these ideologies, he created the Social Gospel. He believed not just in personal salvation but also in salvation as a society.#
The main belief of his Social Gospel movement was that the capitalist believed in the survival of the fittest, which opposed to the lessons taught by Jesus Christ and other great men in history. Ruthless competition by the Capitalists only created inequality and class division. Woodworth believed in co-operation and the use of the peoples authority within the government not the wealthy politicians with their own personal agendas.
Famous Canadian feminist Nellie McClung illustrated Woodsworth practices by writing “his home is open to the people. They do not believe in segregation of virtue” (McNaught,1959 p.13 )
In 1919, the infamous Winnipeg General Strike of about 30,000 workers broke out in Winnipeg. Woodsworth briefly edited the Strike Bulletin of the Western Labour News, was arrested and charged with seditious libel. The prosecution was never pursued.#
Woodsworths role in the strike established a great reputation for him among supporters of the work force and the working poor. In 1921, the Independent Labour Party was formed in Winnipeg and Woodsworth ran for election in Winnipeg North Centre. The party was based, in part, on the British Labour Party and rejected violence and any ties with the Communist Party. Woodsworth was elected and held this seat through five