{"id":3818,"date":"2023-08-29T13:37:42","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T13:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmg.ca\/toronto\/cbc\/?p=3818"},"modified":"2023-08-29T13:42:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T13:42:50","slug":"voices-of-activism-james-jimmie-simpson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmg.ca\/toronto\/cbc\/voices-of-activism-james-jimmie-simpson\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices of Activism \u2014 James \u201cJimmie\u201d Simpson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Voices<\/h2>\n

Toronto\u2019s First Socialist Mayor<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"PortraitJames Simpson (1873-1938) was born in Lancashire, England but immigrated to Canada in his teens. Simpson knew a lot about hard work. As a child, he sold newspapers at the age of 10 and worked for a grocer when he was 13!<\/span><\/p>\n

Simpson was a strong union activist. After joining the Typographical Union strike against the <\/span>Toronto News<\/span><\/i> in 1892, he and the strikers went on to found the <\/span>Evening Star<\/span><\/i> as a strike paper. His ambitions led to a leadership role as vice-president of the Toronto and District Trades and Labour Council at the turn of the century.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1930s, he ran for the mayoralty of Toronto as a member of the Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (now the NDP). It was a democratic socialist political party and was accused of being under Communist influence. But his personal popularity and support from the trade union movement made Toronto the largest city in North America to have elected a socialist mayor. That summer, Simpson boycotted the 1936 Summer Olympics being held in Nazi Germany.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Get involved<\/span><\/h2>\n