John Armstrong | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Article

John Armstrong

John Armstrong, printer, labour leader (d at Toronto 22 Nov 1910). The major Conservative labour spokesman in Toronto in the 1880s, Armstrong was active in the Toronto Trades and Labor Council and in the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada.

John Armstrong, printer, labour leader (d at Toronto 22 Nov 1910). The major Conservative labour spokesman in Toronto in the 1880s, Armstrong was active in the Toronto Trades and Labor Council and in the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada. Fired from the Toronto Mail after the unsuccessful 1884 strike, Armstrong helped lead Toronto workers away from the Tories briefly. Sir John A. Macdonald timely intervention allowed Armstrong to arrange a truce between the printers and the Mail. Appointed to the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital, he led a pro-labour faction which issued a separate report. When the Conservatives came to power in Ontario, Armstrong was named secretary of the Ontario Bureau of Labour.