James Shaver Charleston Woodsworth (July 29, 1874 – March 21, 1942) was a Canadian Methodist minister, politician, and labour activist.

A long-time leader and publicist in the movement, Woodsworth served as an elected member of the federal parliament from 1921 until his death in 1942.

Woodsworth's focus on social issues and inequality led him to become active in the political labour movement in Canada.

He led the protest campaign following the brutal police action which caused one person to be killed during the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919 and helped to organize the Manitoba Independent Labour Party (ILP).

The Woodsworth family moved to Brandon, Manitoba, in 1882, where his father became a Superintendent of Methodist Missions in western Canada.

In 1902, following his return to Canada, he took a position as minister at Grace Church in Winnipeg, and, in 1903, he married Lucy Staples.

[4] In this role, he worked with the poor immigrants in Winnipeg and preached the social gospel that called for the Kingdom of God "here and now" and was concerned with "... the welfare and behaviour of the individual in this world.

He tendered his resignation, but it was refused and he was offered the opportunity to assume the Superintendency of All People's Mission in Winnipeg's North End.

[6] For six years he worked with the poor and immigrant families, and during this time, he wrote and campaigned for compulsory education, juvenile courts, the construction of playgrounds, and other initiatives in support of social welfare.

As a mission worker, Woodsworth had the opportunity to see first hand the appalling circumstances in which many of his fellow citizens lived, and began writing the first of several books decrying the failure to provide workers with a living wage and arguing for the need to create a more egalitarian and compassionate social order.

During this time, he travelled extensively throughout the three Canadian prairie provinces, investigating social conditions, and writing and speaking on his findings.

As church ministers were being asked to preach about the duty of men to serve in the military, Woodsworth decided to publish his objections.

As a pacifist, he was morally opposed to the Church being used as a vehicle of recruitment, and was fired from his position with the Bureau of Social Research, where he was working at the time.

His involvement in the strike further established Woodsworth's credentials with the labour movement and propelled him to a twenty-year tenure in the House of Commons as a Winnipeg MP.

Woodsworth briefly returned to British Columbia in 1920 to run as a Federated Labour Party candidate in Vancouver in the provincial election.

"[10] In December 1921, Woodsworth was elected to the House of Commons in the riding of Winnipeg Centre under the banner of the Independent Labour Party.

Even though he was informed by the Clerk of the House of Commons that bills involving federal spending had to be presented by the government, he nonetheless continued to press his case for better labour legislation.

He also pursued constitutional reform but was unsuccessful in attempt to have Single Transferable Vote system adopted for federal elections.

Rejecting violent revolution and any association with the new Communist Party of Canada, Woodsworth became a master of parliamentary procedure and used the House of Commons as a public platform.

In 1939, many CCF members opposed Woodsworth's opposition to Canada's entry into World War II.

[10] During the debate on the declaration of war, Mackenzie King said: "There are few men in this Parliament for whom I have greater respect than the leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.

[…] I am among a considerable number in this country who believe, and we hold it as a mature conviction, that war is the inevitable outcome of the present economic and international system with its injustices, exploitations, and class interests.

The Woodsworth home at 60 Maryland Street in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is now the location of the Centre for Christian Studies.

In October 2010, the town of Gibsons, British Columbia announced that it would be naming a street in a new subdivision after Woodsworth.