THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:1932
Vancouver South MP Angus MacInnis and Grace Woodsworth began the most storied marriage in the history of Canadian socialism
Normally, the only wedding engagements that make the front page of a newspaper are for royalty, or local bluebloods. But in 1932, The Vancouver Sun billed itself as “The People’s Paper.” And so, on Jan. 12, 1932, readers were treated to a frontpage story on the engagement of the socialist Member of Parliament for Vancouver South. “Angus MacInnis to Wed Winnipeg Girl,” read the headline. “Local MP Engaged to Marry Grace Woodsworth, Daughter of MP for Winnipeg.” Thus began the most storied marriage in the history of Canadian socialism. Grace Woodsworth was the daughter of J. S. Woodsworth, the leader of the independent Labour Party. A few months after his daughter married one of his closest allies in parliament, J. S. Woodsworth founded the Co- operative Commonwealth Federation, the precursor to today’s New Democratic Party. Angus MacInnis was a co- founder of the CCF, and in his day, as prominent as J. S. Woodsworth. He was a man of strong principles, and fearless. In 1936, he bucked the official racism of the day to argue Asian-Canadians should be given the right to vote. During the Second World War, he defended the rights of Japanese- Canadians, when others called for them to be placed in internment camps and deported after the war. “I am opposed to deportation,” he said in 1944, “because these people have come lawfully into our country, and of the 23,000 or so that are here now, close to 15,000 of them were born in Canada, and consequently are no more responsible for the conduct of the Japanese government or Japanese soldiery than we are.” Grace MacInnis was as principled as her husband, and over time would become even more renowned. She was elected to the B. C. legislature in 1941, where she defended the rights of Japanese- Canadians, just as her husband did in Ottawa. After Angus died in 1964, Grace MacInnis was elected in his former seat of Vancouver Kingsway — the first woman elected to the national parliament from British Columbia. She was also the only woman elected in the 1968 election, out of 264 MPs. The MacInnises were not bourgeois socialists. Angus was born on Sept. 2, 1884, in Glen William, P. E. I., and grew up on a farm. He moved to Vancouver in 1908, where he became a milkman and then a streetcar driver for the B. C. Electric Railway. He worked for the BCER for 20 years, only leaving after he was elected a federal MP. MacInnis was a member of Vancouver council from 1926 to 1930. The Sun’s owner, Robert Cromie, supported him editorially in the election, but realized MacInnis had strong socialist convictions. Introducing MacInnis to Sun staff after MacInnis was elected, Cromie said: “This is Angus MacInnis. He wants to thank us for our support, and tell us to go to hell.” Grace Woodsworth was born in Winnipeg on July 25, 1905. She moved to Gibsons with her family in 1917, where her father was minister at the local Methodist church. By 1919, J. S. Woodsworth had returned to Winnipeg, where he was one of the leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike. Grace shared her father’s socialist convictions, and went to work with him in Ottawa in 1930 after returning from a year studying French at the Sorbonne in Paris. In Ottawa, a romance bloomed between the 47- year- old Angus and 26- year- old Grace. “A community of interests drew the affianced couple together when Miss Woodsworth, who was acting as her father’s secretary while in Ottawa, acted also in this capacity for Mr. McInnis when he was attending parliament there,” said the Sun story on their engagement. The couple were married on Jan. 23, 1932, at J. S. Woodsworth’s home in Winnipeg. They would be stalwarts for the CCF/ NDP in the House of Commons for decades — Angus spent 26 years as an MP, Grace nine. Angus died in 1964 at the age of 79. Ten years later, Grace was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada. She died in 1991, at 85.