- Jacob Penner
Jacob Penner (
August 12 ,1880 –August 28 ,1965 ) was a popular socialist politician inCanada . Penner was born and raised in aMennonite family inRussia and emigrated to Winnipeg in 1902. A Marxist, he helped found theSocial Democratic Party of Canada and was an opponent of conscription during theConscription crisis of 1917 and was an organiser of theWinnipeg General Strike in 1919.In 1921, he participated in the founding of the
Communist Party of Canada and was the party's western organiser. In 1933, he was elected to Winnipeg'scity council as analderman , a position he held until 1960 becoming the longest serving elected Communist alderman in North America. When he retired, fellow CommunistJoseph Zuken succeeded him on City Council and was to serve until the 1980s.Penner was very popular among his constituents in the city's impoverished north end and attracted support from across party lines. He was an early advocate of a
minimum wage andunemployment insurance and used his political position to campaign for these reforms. His son,Roland Penner joined theManitoba New Democratic Party and served as the province'sAttorney-General in the 1980s.In addition to his service in municipal politics, Jacob Penner also sought federal or provincial office on four occasions:
*
Winnipeg North , 1921 (federal), 565 votes (winner:Edward James McMurray , Liberal)
*Winnipeg, 1927 (provincial), 2015 votes on the first count, not elected ("Winnipeg elected ten members by preferential balloting during this period")
*Winnipeg, 1932 (provincial), 1106 votes on the first count, not elected
*St. Johns, 1958 (provincial), 588 votes (winner:David Orlikow , Co-operative Commonwealth Federation)External links
* [http://collections.ic.gc.ca/seeds/seeds/iii/33/ A Glowing Dream: the story of Jacob and Rose Penner]
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