Daniel O’Donoghue,
Trade Unionist and MPP
The first unionist elected to office Tin Canada as a labour candidate was Daniel O’Donoghue, a printer from Bytown ( Ottawa), often referred to as the “Father of the Canadian Labour Movement.” Born in 1844 at Tralee in Ireland, he and his parents emigrated to Canada in 1852. Upon completing his apprenticeship, he traveled to the United States and was impressed with the spirit of trade unionism he witnessed in the cities he visited. He returned to Ottawa, and his efforts at union organization culminated in the founding of a printers’ group in 1866.
In 1869 O’Donoghue pioneered the idea of fair-wage legislation when he protested the unfairness of the government practice of accepting the lowest tender regardless of wage rates. (The Ottawa Daily Citizen had won a government contract with wages below the going rate of $8.00 per week.) He also inaugurated the practice of a group of labour officials visiting the prime minister each year to discuss matters of concern to working people.
A firm believer in political action, O’Donoghue felt workers would receive justice only when their own representatives sit in the legislative halls. In 1874, with Conservative support in a provincial by-election, he proved himself able to compete in the political arena, defeating his opponent 887 to 285. He was returned to office the following year in the general election.
Also noteworthy among his accomplishments were a bill easing voting restrictions and extending the right to vote in Ontario and broadening educational opportunities through free schools and compulsory attendance. In the latter endeavor he is credited with being one of those responsible for the Toronto Technical School, one of the first institutions of its kind in Canada.
In 1900 O’Donoghue accepted the post of first fair-wage officer of the newly created federal Department of Labour at the invitation of William Lyon Mackenzie King, deputy minister of the department. His death in 1907 was attributed in part to overwork, as his efforts to improve the lot of his fellow workingman never ceased.
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