Fred Dixon

Fred Dixon (January 20, 1881-1931) was a Manitoba politician, and was for several years the dominant figure in the province's mainstream labour movement.

Born in Englefield, England, Dixon was not (except perhaps in a very general sense) a socialist. He was influenced by the reformist labour politics of his home country, and also favoured the single tax ideas of Henry George.

Dixon arrived in Manitoba in 1903, and worked as a lecturer. He was a member of the Independent Labour Party during this period, and opposed the efforts of some party members to declare the ILP as socialist. This controversy led to the disintegration of the ILP in 1908.

Dixon first ran for the provincial legislature in the 1910 provincial election as a candidate of the Manitoba Labour Party. He was also supported by the provincial Liberal Party, whose platform he generally supported. Dixon's centrist labourism brought about opposition from the Socialist Party of Canada, which ran a spoiler candidate against him. Dixon lost to Conservative Thomas Taylor by 73 votes; the SPC polled 99.

The SPC's actions provoked a backlash among the Winnipeg trade unions, and increased Dixon's popularity in the city. He ran as an independent in the provincial election of 1914, receiving support from both the Liberals and the Labour Representation Committee (a successor to the MLP). Despite further SPC opposition, he was elected for Winnipeg Centre "B". He was again returned in the 1915 election, as an "Independent Progressive".

During World War I, Dixon emerged as one of the leading anti-conscriptionists in Winnipeg, and also defended the rights of conscientious objectors to the war effort. These efforts placed him in conflict with the Manitoba Liberals, who generally supported the conscription policies of Robert Borden's Unionist government. In March 1918, Dixon helped to found the first branch of the Dominion Labour Party in Winnipeg. Though never a strong or centralized party, the DLP would subsequently branch out to other cities in the Canadian prairies.

Dixon supported the strikers during the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, and undoubtedly played an important role in legitimizing their efforts among the city's reformist labourites. Dixon was subsequently accused of seditious libel for his activities during the strike, defended himself, and was found not guilty.

In the provincial election of 1920, Dixon headed a united labour list in the city of Winnipeg, which had been re-designed as a single constituency with ten members elected by a single transferable ballot. He easily topped the poll with 11,586 votes, almost 7000 more than his nearest Liberal competitor. There can be little doubt that Dixon was the most popular politician in the city at the time.

Nine DLP supporters, along with one member apiece from the SPC and SDPC, were elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1920. Dixon was the unquestioned leader of the labour parliamentary caucus. He was able to cooperate with more left-wing figures, and kept the group reasonably united through to the election of 1922.

In late 1920, the DLP in Winnipeg was taken over by rightist labourites who had opposed the General Strike. Dixon led a walkout of DLP members, and was involved in founding the province's new Independent Labour Party. The ILP became the primary voice of the parliamentary left in Manitoba, and later become part of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.

Dixon again topped the Winnipeg list in 1922, albeit by the reduced margin of almost 4000 votes over the nearest Liberal. The total labour caucus was reduced to six members.

In 1923, Dixon resigned as an Member of the Legislative Assembly following the death of his wife and two of his children. John Queen, formerly of the SDPC, became ILP leader in his place. Dixon spent the rest of his life working as a part-time insurance salesman, and died of cancer at age fifty. The tragedy of his later years robbed Canada's labour movement of one of its most dynamic voices.