Seymour James Farmer (1878-1951)

Accountant, Mayor of Winnipeg (1923-1924), MLA (1923-1927), MLA (1927-1932), MLA (1933-1936), MLA (1937-1940), MLA (1941-1945), MLA (1946-1949).

Born 20 June 1878, at Cardiff, Wales. Son of Seymour Farmer and Bessie Alexander Sander. Was educated at Cardiff. Came to Canada, 1900. Married Lydia Gwendoline Ashton, with whom he had two daughters and four sons.

He was employed at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange from 1913 to 1927, clerking at the International Elevator Corporation in 1919. He supported direct legislation, a single tax, and was an ardent pacifist. Farmer was active in the founding of the Labour Church in 1918, and was chairman of the Dominion Labor Party in Manitoba that same year. He was one of the founders of the Independent Labor Party in 1921, and was elected mayor of Winnipeg (1922-23) and later a member of the Winnipeg City Council. He was subsequently a CCF MLA and was leader of the Manitoba CCF from 1935 to 1949. He was minister of labour in the coalition government of World War Two, resigning in 1942 when John Bracken became national leader of the Conservative Party. Farmer won six elections as an ILP and CCF candidate, the last in 1945.

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Profile revised: 8 August 2009

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