Major James William Coldwell[a] PC CC (December 2, 1888 – August 25, 1974) was a Canadian democratic socialist politician, and leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) party from 1942 to 1960.
[2] He attended Exeter University (then called Royal Albert Memorial College), where he met Norah Gertrude Dunsford in 1907, and in December 1909, they became engaged.
[5] In 1929, The Farmers' Political Association and the ILP nominated three candidates for the provincial election, under the joint banner of the Saskatchewan Farmer–Labour party, with Coldwell leading it.
[5] The party fought the 1934 provincial election under Coldwell's leadership, and it won five seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, making it the official opposition to the Liberal government.
[7] Woodsworth, a pacifist, opposed the war effort, while Coldwell and the rest of the CCF caucus supported it, as per the party's official position.
In July 1942, three months after Woodsworth's death, Coldwell was unanimously elected the CCF's new leader at the party's convention.
[9] Liberal governments implemented unemployment insurance, family allowances, and universal old age pensions, stealing much of the CCF's thunder and causing the party's electoral fortunes to turn downward during the prosperous 1950s.
[12] On October 11, at a rally for the CCF's by-election candidate, Ford Brand, at Parkdale Collegiate Institute, a member of the audience asked Coldwell about the rumour that he had been offered the leadership of the Liberal Party.
"[12] Coldwell and the rest of the CCF were looking forward to the federal and Ontario elections of 1945, which would possibly be the most crucial to Canada in the 20th century.
"[13] The antisocialist crusade by the Ontario Conservative Party, mostly credited to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) special investigative branch's agent D-208 (Captain William J. Osborne-Dempster) and the Conservative propagandists Gladstone Murray and Montague A. Sanderson,[14] diminished the CCF's initially favourable position both provincially and nationally:[15] the September 1943 Gallup poll showed the CCF leading nationally with 29 per cent support, with the Liberals and the Conservatives tied for second place at 28 per cent.
[19] He pushed the party to accept the private sector in a mixed economy in the hope that the new principles would make the CCF more electable.
However, the party needed a leader in the House of Commons, and the CCF parliamentary caucus chose Hazen Argue to fill this role.
[22] In an attempt to prevent their plans from derailing, Lewis tried to persuade Argue not to force a vote at the convention on the question of the party's leadership.
[24] Also, Coldwell and Douglas thought that Lewis could not defeat Argue because he had no parliamentary seat and, probably more importantly, his role as party disciplinarian over the years had made him too many enemies.
[24] Douglas, after much consultation, with Coldwell, Lewis, and his caucus, reluctantly decided in June 1961 to contest the leadership of the New Party.
[28] Also in 1964, he was appointed to the House of Commons Advisory Committee on Election Finances chaired by Liberal cabinet minister Judy LaMarsh.
[11][30][31] When Douglas retired as the NDP's leader in April 1971, the party established the Douglas–Coldwell Foundation in Ottawa as its parting gift to both men.
[32] That same year, the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation purchased the medals back for about $10,000 so that they could be displayed in the Tommy Douglas House museum in Regina.