Talk:William Irvine (Canadian politician)

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1921 Labour caucus

Kenneth McNaught's "Prophet in Politics" lists Shaw as a member of the Progressive caucus (p. 212) -- and I think I can remember from another source that JSW and Irvine were the only two "Labour" MPs as such. CJCurrie 02:45, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The Parliamentary Website lists three Labour MPs in the 14th Parliament, Irvine, Shaw and Woodsworth. There's no official mention of Shaw being affiliated with the Progressives thought that doesn't mean he didn't caucus and vote with them (the Parliamentary Website also makes no mention of the Ginger Group in the biographies of those MPs we know were in it so it can't be taken as the last word). I think we can at least say there were three Labour MPs elected in 1921 but we should defer to your sources regarding who caucused with whom. We certainly shouldn't assume that Labour MPs always caucused together given Humphrey Mitchell who was one of four Labour or Independent Labour MPs elected to the 17th Parliament (1930-1935) and who certainly did not caucus with the other Labourites. Homey 02:59, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the parliamentary website is wrong on this point (about Shaw). I've found another book (Thomas Morton's "The Progressive Party in Canada") which indicates Shaw was "considered a Progressive" in 1922, before declaring his "complete independence" in 1923 (p. 182). I think he later became the leader of Alberta's Liberal Party. His shifting allegiances are covered in detail in Anthony Mardiros's Irvine bio; unfortunately, Stauffer's copy is out. I can also remember reading that Irvine sometimes joked about the 1922-25 Labour group by saying "JSW is the leader, and I'm the caucus" (or words to that effect). CJCurrie 03:09, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Addendum: The "Ginger Group" was never a formal party, so I don't think any official source would reference it. CJCurrie 03:13, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, seems I might be wrong, according to one source Mitchell attended the "founding meeting" of the CCF in Irvine's office (presumably, this was a preliminary meeting where the idea of the CCF was conceived)[1] Homey 03:43, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]