Canadian Socialist League

The Canadian Socialist League (CSL) was formed in Montreal in 1898 by former members of the Socialist Labor Party.^[1] The founders rejected the Labor party leadership of Daniel De Leon.^[2] Support for the league appeared about the same time in the summer of 1899 in Montreal and Toronto.^[3] In Ontario the CSL was organized by George Weston Wrigley and Thomas Phillips Thompson, both former Knights of Labor, in an effort to pull together the reform forces that had become fragmented after the Patrons of Industry were defeated in the 1896 federal election.^[4] The CSL had a local in Port Moody, British Columbia, by January 1900, which became the focus of its activities in that province. John M. Cameron, a former member of the Utopian Ruskin colony, was the organizer in British Columbia.^[5] A formal organizing convention for the Ontario Socialist League was held in Toronto in November 1901 to provide the base for the national organization.^[3]

Wrigley, editor of the CSL's organ Citizen and Country, dominated the league with his Christian socialism.^[5] The CSL leader said socialism was applied Christianity and "Christ was the first socialist."^[6] The league rejected the ideology of class struggle, and emphasized reform and public ownership.^[5] It has been described as a transitional group of Ruskinian romantics and moderate Christian socialists. Although Marxist-oriented socialists made the group more radical, the CSL was still wedded to reformist ideals.^[7] The CSL was broad and flexible, open to radicals, labourites, socialists, and women's rights activists.^[8] Leadership was mostly male and English-speaking. Women who were active in the organization were typically married and did not work for a living.^[9]

The CSL was primarily concerned with educating the electorate about socialism, and was not a parliamentary party in the modern sense. It held meetings to stir up interest in socialism and to debate subjects such as the relationship between socialism and Christianity.^[10] Disputes soon erupted between Protestant ministers and Marxists.^[3] The minister Charles Sheldon of Topeka, Kansas, author of the best-selling novel In His Steps, was invited to Toronto to address the league and accepted the position of honorary president of the league's executive. In his writings Sheldon discussed social problems such as unemployment, poverty, racialism, alcohol, corruption and so on, always asking "What would Jesus do?"^[11]

Edith Wrigley, wife of the publisher George Wrigley, edited the women's column in the Citizen and Country.^[12] She was also active in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). In her short-lived column "The Kingdom of the Home" she discussed issues such as suffrage, charity, prohibition, prostitution and the servant problem. (The so-called "servant problem" was the problem that middle-class families had with cleaning, cooking, and especially entertaining at the level that was socially expected. It was too much work for any one person to do herself, but middle-class families, unlike wealthy families, could not afford to pay the wages necessary to attract and retain skilled household employees.^[13]) Her message was typical of maternal feminism, that love and purity, the values of the home sphere, should also guide politics.^[14] Other women activists in the CSL were Emily Stowe and Augusta Stowe-Gullen.^[15]

In 1902 the CSL nominated Margaret Haile as its candidate for North Toronto in the 1902 provincial election. Haile was also active in the WCTU, and took a maternal feminist position. As a woman she was opposed by various factions, and an attempt was made to exclude her from the ballot. The Toiler, the labour paper, would not endorse her.^[14] She won only 81 votes in the election, but was hailed by Citizen and Country as the first woman to run in a political election in the British Empire.^[14]