Jump to content

Bruce Magnuson

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bruce Magnuson
Leader of the Communist Party of Ontario
In office
1956–1967
Preceded byStewart Smith
Succeeded byWilliam Stewart
Personal details
Born
Bruce Adolf H. Magnuson

(1909-02-21)February 21, 1909
Värmland, Sweden
DiedJune 24, 1995(1995-06-24) (aged 86)
Toronto, Ontario
Political partyCommunist Party of Ontario
Other political
affiliations		Communist Party of Canada
Labor-Progressive Party (1943–1959)
OccupationPolitician, trade unionist

Bruce Adolf H. Magnuson (February 21, 1909 – June 24, 1995) was a Canadian trade unionist and Communist leader.

Magnuson was born in the Swedish province of Värmland and grew up on his parents' farm. He immigrated to Canada in the spring of 1928 at the age of 19 and worked on farms in Saskatchewan before settling in the Lakehead district of northern Ontario in 1933 where he got involved in a bushworkers' strike led by the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada.[1]

He was hurt working in the bush and spent several months in hospital convalescing during which time he read the Communist Manifesto and other leftwing literature and decided to join the Communist Party of Canada.[1]

Magnuson was elected president of Local 2786 Lumber and Sawmill Workers' Union in 1940 and led the union until 1951 when Communists were purged by the parent union, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, after which Magnuson organized a breakaway union, the Canadian Union of Woodworkers[1] In 1946, he led a strike that is credited with establishing the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union on a broad basis in northern Ontario winning recognition of the union by lumber companies as the bargaining authority for workers in the pulpwood industry and establishing collective bargaining in the region's timber industry.[2]

From August 1940 to August 1942, Magnuson was interned first at Camp Petawawa and later at an internment camp at Hull, Quebec as a subversive under the Defence of Canada Regulations.[3] He and other communists were released after the Soviet Union became an ally as a result of Germany's invasion of the USSR.[4]

Magnuson was on the founding executive of the Labor-Progressive Party in Ontario[5] and a frequent candidate. In the 1957 federal election, Magnuson was the Labor-Progressive candidate in Port Arthur against Liberal cabinet minister C.D. Howe but withdrew a few weeks prior to the election in order to support Co-operative Commonwealth Federation candidate Douglas Fisher who went on to defeat Howe by 1,400 votes in an upset victory[6] Magnuson had won 923 in the 1953 federal election in Port Arthur.

He became leader of the Labor-Progressive Party in Ontario following its crisis in 1956 when provincial leader Stewart Smith, former MPP J.B. Salsberg and hundreds of other party members left in the aftermath of Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech, the 1956 Hungarian Uprising as well as revelations about the extent of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union under Stalin.

Magnuson led the Labor-Progressive Party in the 1959 Ontario election,[7] and remained leader of the party as it renamed itself the Communist Party of Canada (Ontario) and contested the 1963[8] and 1967 provincial elections[9]

He last ran as a Communist Party candidate in the 1984 federal election in Sudbury winning 75 votes. He remained a member of the Central Executive of the Communist Party of Canada in the mid-1980s.[10]

He died in Toronto in 1995.[11]

Electoral record

[edit]
1984 Canadian federal election: Sudbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Doug Frith 18,012 41.30 -14.40
Progressive Conservative John A. Dediana 14,100 32.33 +20.50
New Democratic Harriet Conroy 11,185 25.65 -5.51
Rhinoceros Phil Moon Popovich 241 0.55 -0.18
Communist Bruce Magnuson 75 0.17 +0.02
Total valid votes 43,613
1975 Ontario general election: St. Catharines
Party Candidate Votes %
Progressive Conservative Rob Johnston 10,064 34.74
Liberal J.A. Rochefort 9,270 32.00
New Democratic Fred Dickson 9,215 31.81
Communist Bruce Magnuson 227 0.78
Independent Lucylle Boikoff 192 0.66
Total valid votes 28,968 99.13
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 253 0.87
Turnout 29,221
1968 Canadian federal election: Windsor-Walkerville
Party Candidate Votes %
Liberal Mark MacGuigan 17,090 49.14
New Democratic Bert Weeks 12,090 34.76
Progressive Conservative David Alexander Gray 5,191 14.93
Communist Bruce A. H. Magnuson 408 1.17
Total valid votes 34,779
1967 Ontario general election: Dovercourt
Party Candidate Votes %
Liberal Dante De Monte 6,184 44.02
New Democratic Otto Bressan 4,598 32.73
Progressive Conservative Kay Armstrong 2,841 20.22
Communist Bruce Magnuson 426 3.03
Total valid votes 14,049
1965 Canadian federal election: Essex East
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Paul Martin Sr. 26,094 63.78 +3.96
Progressive Conservative David Gourlie 8,142 19.90 -0.78
New Democratic Hugh McConville 6,133 14.99 -2.79
Communist Bruce A. H. Magnuson 543 1.33 –
Total valid votes 40,912
Liberal hold Swing
1963 Ontario general election: Port Arthur
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative George Wardrope 13,580 50.56 +9.68
New Democratic Joseph Shannon 6,731 25.06 -0.77
Liberal Paul Le May 6,143 22.87 -10.42
Communist Bruce Magnuson 407 1.51 -
Total valid votes 26,861 100.00 -
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 175 0.65 -0.59
Turnout 27,036 66.70 -4.36
Eligible voters 40,533
Progressive Conservative hold Swing +5.22
1959 Ontario general election: St. Andrew
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Allan Grossman 3,773 42.08 +0.83
Liberal Samuel Kelner 2,996 33.41 +23.37
Co-operative Commonwealth James Robertson 1,664 18.56 +6.77
Labor–Progressive Bruce Magnuson 402 4.48 -31.23
Social Credit Dorothy Cureatz 132 1.47 –
Total valid votes 8,967
Progressive Conservative hold Swing
1958 Canadian federal election: Fort William
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Hubert Badanai 9,915 39.84 +1.63
Progressive Conservative Art Widnall 9,798 39.37 +3.96
Co-operative Commonwealth Michael Chicorli 4,953 19.90 -6.48
Labor–Progressive Bruce Magnuson 224 0.90 –
Total valid votes 24,890
Progressive Conservative hold Swing
1955 Ontario general election: Port Arthur
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative George Wardrope 9,517 42.52 +5.14
Co-operative Commonwealth Ronald Wilmot 7,741 34.59 +4.85
Liberal Charles MacDonnell 4,347 19.42 -6.83
Labor–Progressive Bruce Magnuson 775 3.46 -
Total valid votes 22,380 100.00 -
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 277 1.22 -0.36
Turnout 22,657 68.38 +4.36
Eligible voters 33,132
Progressive Conservative hold Swing +4.99
1953 Canadian federal election: Port Arthur
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal C. D. Howe 12,272 50.14 -0.97
Co-operative Commonwealth Ronald Vincent Wilmot 5,865 23.96 -1.91
Progressive Conservative Bob Robinson 5,415 22.12 +1.64
Labor–Progressive Bruce Magnuson 923 3.77 –
Total valid votes 24,475
Liberal hold Swing
1951 Ontario general election: Port Arthur
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative George Wardrope 7,758 37.38 +13.86
Co-operative Commonwealth Frederick Robinson 6,172 29.74 -15.19
Liberal Frederick Kelly 5,447 26.25 -5.3
Independent Liberal Bruce Magnuson 1,375 6.63 -
Total valid votes 20,752 100.00 -
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 333 1.58 +0.61
Turnout 21,085 64.02 +1.25
Eligible voters 32,934
Progressive Conservative gain from Co-operative Commonwealth Swing +14.52
1945 Ontario general election: Port Arthur
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Co-operative Commonwealth Frederick Robinson 6,403 34.90 -19.38
Liberal Hobart Styffe 4,375 23.85 -3.60
Progressive Conservative Herbert Cook 3,254 17.74 -0.52
Independent Liberal Charles Winnans Cox 2,828 15.41 -
Labor–Progressive Bruce Magnuson 1,486 8.10 -
Total valid votes 18,346 100.00 -
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots 212 1.15 +0.34
Turnout 18,419 73.01 -0.96
Eligible voters 25,419
Co-operative Commonwealth hold Swing

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Campbell, Peter (1992). "Reviewed work: The Untold Story of Ontario's Bushworkers, Bruce Magnuson". Labour / Le Travail. 29: 266–268. doi:10.2307/25143588. JSTOR 25143588. Retrieved Mar 15, 2020.
  2. ^ Iacovetta, Franca; Draper, Paula; Ventresca, Robert (January 1998). A Nation of Immigrants: Women, Workers, and Communities in Canadian History ... - Paula Draper, Franca Iacovetta, Robert Ventresca - Google Books. ISBN 9780802074829. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  3. ^ "Socialist History Project". Socialisthistory.ca. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
  4. ^ Campbell, Peter (1992). "Review: Bruce Magnuson, The Untold Story of Ontario's Bushworkers (Toronto: Progress Books 1990)". Labour/Le Travail. 29–30: 266–268. doi:10.2307/25143588. JSTOR 25143588. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
  5. ^ "Saskatoon Star-Phoenix - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved Mar 15, 2020.
  6. ^ "Vochenblatt - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved Mar 15, 2020.
  7. ^ "The Windsor Daily Star - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved Mar 15, 2020.
  8. ^ "The Windsor Star - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved Mar 15, 2020.
  9. ^ "The Windsor Star - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved Mar 15, 2020.
  10. ^ ""bruce magnuson" communist - Google Search". www.google.ca. Retrieved Mar 15, 2020.
  11. ^ "Deaths", The Globe and Mail, June 26, 1995, pg. C5
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruce_Magnuson&oldid=1195665664"