Rollo was secretary of the Hamilton Trades and Labour Council from 1906 to 1919.[6] In 1919, he also became editor of the Labor News, a Hamilton-based union paper.[7]
Political careeredit
Rollo was involved in politics at all levels. In 1916, he was appointed as a member of Ontario's Organization of Resources Committee which was established to improve Canada's war effort in the Province.[8] He had also been a member of the Board of Education in Hamilton for several years.[5][9]
in the Ontario 1919 general election, which he won. In his campaign, signs were posted that read: "Your Vote for Walter Rollo is a nail in the coffin of the profiteer."[14]
He and Morrison Mann MacBride were instrumental in negotiating a coalition government between the Independent Labour Party and the United Farmers of Ontario under E.C. Drury,[15] which lasted until 1923. As a result of those negotiations, the ILP had the right to nominate two of its members to the new government: Rollo became the Province's first Minister of Labour—a position that had been created immediately before the election by the previous Conservative government of William Hearst[16]—and Harry Mills became the first Minister of Mines.[17][18] This caused a confrontation within the ILP, as MacBride had sought to be nominated to the Labour position.[19][20]
During his time as Minister, Rollo brought in several enhancements to Ontario's labour laws:[21]
the Minimum Wage Act, which set minimum wages for female employees,[22]
the Wages Act was amended to provide that 70% of any wages due to a worker was exempt from seizure,[23]
the One Day's Rest in Seven Act, which provided (with certain exceptions) that employees were entitled to 24 consecutive hours of rest every seven days,[24]
After his defeat in the 1923 general election, Rollo was appointed as an adolescent school inspector for the City of Hamilton,[27] and he was still working as a school attendance officer there in 1938,[28] and as a part-time school assessment adviser in 1950.[26] He died in 1957.[29]
Further readingedit
Bill Freeman (1979). "Hamilton Labour: The failure of an opposition group". In Bill Freeman; Marsha Hewitt (eds.). Their Town: The Mafia, the Media and the Party Machine. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company. pp. 38–61. ISBN 0-88862-266-X.
James Naylor (1991). The New Democracy: Challenging the Social Order in Industrial Ontario, 1914-1925. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-5953-8.
Roger Hall; William Westfall; Laurel Sefton MacDowell, eds. (1996). "The Decline of Labourism". Patterns of the Past: Interpreting Ontario's History. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 1-55002034-X.
Referencesedit
^"Walter Ritchie Rollo, 'Scotland Census, 1881'". Retrieved October 15, 2013.
^The One Day's Rest in Seven Act, 1922, S.O. 1922, c. 93
^The Workmen's Compensation Act, 1920, S.O. 1920, c. 43
^ ab"Act He Helped Draw Up No Help To Ex-Minister". Ottawa Citizen. August 29, 1950. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
^Gil O'Mourne (February 23, 1924). "Drury and Ex-Ministers Have 'Broadened Out', Farming No Longer Chief Interest Of Cabinet". The Morning Leader. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
^"Where They've Gone". Vancouver Sun. November 29, 1938. Retrieved October 15, 2013.