Seymour James Farmer (20 June 1878 – 16 January 1951) was a Georgist politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as a cabinet minister in Manitoba's World War II coalition government.
Early life and career
Farmer was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of Seymour Farmer and Bessie Alexander Sander, and was educated there. He moved to Canada in 1900 and worked as a railway clerk. He served as Fred Dixon's campaign manager in Dixon's unsuccessful 1910 bid for election to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. He worked as an accountant for the International Grain Company from 1913 to 1927. In it he called for social ownership of utilities and industries and for a social dividend which was to be arrived at in different means than the social credit dividend espoused by Alberta premier William Aberhart. ILP/CCF increased their representation to seven seats.
After the election, a group of disgruntled ILP members forced a temporary disaffiliation from the CCF. Pressure from David Lewis and J. S. Woodsworth brought the two parties back in alignment, but their relationship remained tenuous.
At the start of World War II, Farmer approved of federal CCF leader Woodsworth's pacifist stance in the House of Commons of Canada. Farmer endorsed the CCF's call to conscript "wealth rather than men" for the war effort. Most of the ILP supported an all-out war effort, however. This exacerbated tensions between the groups. The ILP finally dissolved in 1943 after its internal operations had been taken over by CCF loyalists.
Throughout the 1930s, Manitoba premier John Bracken had attempted to bring the province's opposition parties into a "non-partisan" coalition government. Bracken's Progressives absorbed the provincial Liberals in 1932, but the other parties turned down his requests on two separate occasions. With the start of the war, however, "non-party" government became a more viable option. The Conservatives and Social Credit joined the government in 1940; despite opposition from David Lewis, Farmer convinced the CCF to do the same.
Farmer argued (somewhat dubiously) that Bracken was willing to adopt labour-friendly policies, and that the CCF would benefit more from joining government than from being the sole group in opposition. He also argued that an all-party government would defer the next provincial election for a year, ll and allow the CCF more time to organize. Lewis eventually resigned himself to the alliance, and the CCF entered Manitoba's government in late 1940. Farmer was the first member of a social democratic party in Canada to receive a cabinet portfolio and was sworn in as Minister of Labour on 4 November.
By any measurement, the CCF's tenure in government was a disaster for the party. While the Conservatives were fully integrated into the management of the province, Social Credit and the CCF were marginalized. Bracken forced Farmer's labour legislation to face free votes in the legislature, which soon took the form of party votes, with the CCF invariably on the losing side.
The Manitoba CCF was demoralized in the election of 1941. Keeping an earlier pledge, it contested only ten ridings and fell from seven to three members.
Support for the CCF rose nationally throughout 1942, and there was a growing desire among many in the Manitoba party to leave the coalition. Farmer resigned from cabinet in December 1942, and the CCF formally left the government the following year.