Richard “Dickie” Arthur Rigg (1872-1964)

Labour leader, socialist, MLA (1916-1920).

Born in Todmorton, Lancashire, England, he worked in a cotton mill while in grade school and was employed full-time from the age of 12. He began his theological studies in 1891 and had abandoned the Methodist ministry on coming to Canada in 1903. By 1909 he was the Winnipeg representative of the Bookbinders’ Union. He was the first nominee of the Labour Representation Committee to win a seat on the Winnipeg City Council when elected in 1913. A year later he was sent to represent the Trades and Labor Council at the American Federation of Labor convention in Philadelphia. He was elected to the provincial legislature in 1915 from Winnipeg North. He agreed to co-operate with the government’s national registration program in 1916 when he was assured that registration was not a prelude to conscription, but he subsequently withdrew his support. He joined the army in 1917 and insisted on being sent overseas. In 1917 he resigned his provincial seat to contest the federal election in Winnipeg North as the nominee of the Manitoba section of the Canadian Labor Party. He was described by the Manitoba Free Press in 1918 as “the outstanding figure in the labour and radical world of Winnipeg,” but was not active in the Winnipeg General Strike. Rigg subsequently opposed the One Big Union. From 1930 to 1937 he was director of the Employment Service of Canada.

His papers are at the Archives of Manitoba.

Source:

Profile revised: 31 January 2010

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