[2] Wrigley's parents were Presbyterian, but his views evolved to a more liberal, Social Gospel position.
[3] In 1892 Wrigley founded the Canada Farmers' Sun in London, supporting the Ontario Patrons of Industry, a rapidly growing agrarian reform movement.
They wanted a smaller and simpler government, abolition of railway subsidies and reduced reciprocal tariffs.
In 1893 Wrigley agreed to devote three pages of his paper to the Patrons in return for their financial assistance.
The paper gave extensive coverage to the Patrons, but also covered many other reform movements and proposals.
It avoided religious controversy, but clearly took the Social Gospel position that the value of Christianity lay in practical deeds.
[6] Wrigley thought the capitalist, industrial society with its monopolies and tariffs were unfair and immoral, far from the ethics presented in the Sermon on the Mount.
Wrigley was in the centre of the negotiations to create a coalition of the Patrons and the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada.
In 1895–96 Wrigley published a paper named Brotherhood Era, which he also inserted as a supplement in the Sun.
It was aimed at urban readers, and concentrated on the injustice of industrial capitalism, supporting causes such as the single tax,[a] the eight-hour day, and equal suffrage, and opposing militarism.
[12] In Ontario the CSL was organized by Wrigley and Thomas Phillips Thompson, both former Knights of Labor, in an effort to pull together the reform forces that had become fragmented after the Patrons of Industry were defeated in the 1896 federal election.
Wrigley approved of the Finnish locals, which were against smoking or drinking at their meetings since they wanted women and children to feel welcome to attend.
[16] In the summer of 1899 Wrigley visited British Columbia by way of the prairies, and found an active social reform movement in the west of Canada.
"[18] Richard Parmater Pettipiece had been publishing the Lardeau Eagle, a miners' journal that supported the Socialist League.
Starting in July 1902 the journal began appearing in Vancouver with Wrigley's help as the Canadian Socialist.
[17] (He was also active in the Proportional Representation Committee of Ontario, helping produce the book "Effective Voting - The Basis of Good Municipal Government" (Toronto, 1898).
[9] George Wrigley had moved to Vancouver Island by September 1902 where he helped organize the American Labor Union and worked for the Western Socialist.