Alexander Whyte Wright, journalist, labour leader, politician (b at Elmira, Ont 17 Dec 1845; d c 1919). After some business attempts in southwestern Ontario, he became a journalist and newspaper editor in the 1870s. Although a Conservative and prominent advocate of the national policy, he endorsed currency and labour reform. He believed in the primacy of workers, farmers and productive manufacturers, and in the 1880s became a prominent Knights of Labor leader, first in Toronto and then in the US, becoming secretary of the order and editor of the Journal of the Knights of Labor, 1889-93. Returning to Ontario after the order's virtual collapse in 1893, he served as a royal commissioner to investigate sweatshop labour for the Tory federal government (1895). He edited a Toronto Tory labour paper 1909-14 and later was made vice-chairman of the Ontario Workmen's Compensation Board. A talented writer and orator, Wright was both charlatan and reformer and undoubtedly the best Canadian example of a mediator between the working class and the traditional political party.
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- MLA 8TH EDITION
- Kealey, Gregory S. . "Alexander Whyte Wright". The Canadian Encyclopedia, 16 December 2013, Historica Canada. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alexander-whyte-wright. Accessed 08 August 2022.
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- Kealey, G. (2013). Alexander Whyte Wright. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alexander-whyte-wright
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- Kealey, Gregory S. . "Alexander Whyte Wright." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published January 24, 2008; Last Edited December 16, 2013.
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- The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Alexander Whyte Wright," by Gregory S. Kealey, Accessed August 08, 2022, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alexander-whyte-wright
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CloseAlexander Whyte Wright
Article by | Gregory S. Kealey |
Published Online | January 24, 2008 |
Last Edited | December 16, 2013 |
Alexander Whyte Wright, journalist, labour leader, politician (b at Elmira, Ont 17 Dec 1845; d c 1919). After some business attempts in southwestern Ontario, he became a journalist and newspaper editor in the 1870s.
Alexander Whyte Wright, journalist, labour leader, politician (b at Elmira, Ont 17 Dec 1845; d c 1919). After some business attempts in southwestern Ontario, he became a journalist and newspaper editor in the 1870s.