Arthur Puttee

He helped found the local trade union council, the Winnipeg Labour Party (WLP) and a left-wing newspaper called The Voice, which he edited from 1899 until 1918.

When Winnipeg's Liberal MP, R. W. Jameson, died in February 1899, Puttee called for the nomination of a Labour candidate to contest the vacant seat in a by-election (which was finally held on January 25, 1900).

Martin had been nominated by a minority faction in the party rebelling against Clifford Sifton, a powerful member of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier's Cabinet and the leading Liberal spokesman in the western provinces.

Puttee ran on a platform promoting public ownership of "all natural monopolies" and other reformist measures.

A second reason for Puttee's defeat was the loss of Liberal support, as the Sifton loyalists succeeded in nominating their candidate, D. W. Bole.

This ILP proved to be short-lived, collapsing in an internal feud after some of its members attempted to define the party as "socialist".

In 1910, Puttee endorsed Fred Dixon as a candidate for the provincial legislature, and helped create the short-lived Manitoba Labour Party to support him.

In 1918, Puttee helped to create the Dominion Labour Party, which was intended to consolidate labourist activities in various cities throughout the country.

By the time of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, Puttee was a marginal figure sidelined by younger, more militant leaders such as J. S. Woodsworth and Abraham Albert Heaps.