John Wesley Dafoe (8 March 1866 – 9 January 1944) was a Canadian
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
. From 1901 to 1944 he was the editor of the ''
Manitoba Free Press'', later named the ''Winnipeg Free Press''. He also wrote several books, including a biography of
Sir Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minist ...
.
Dafoe was one of the country's most influential and powerful journalists. During his tenure, the ''Free Press'' was among the most important newspapers in Canada and was considered one of the great newspapers of the world. His influence extended to the very centre of Canadian power, both through his writing and his close relations with his employers, the Liberal Sifton family.
In 1919, he did not give unqualified support to the Business side during the strong Labour-Capital confrontation that was the Winnipeg General strike.
He claimed credit for his paper that Winnipeg adopted
Single Transferable Voting
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
for city elections in 1920.
[Dafoe-Sifton Correspondence 1919-1927, Nov. 10, 1920]
Dafoe accompanied
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...
to several
imperial conference
Imperial Conferences (Colonial Conferences before 1907) were periodic gatherings of government leaders from the self-governing colonies and dominions of the British Empire between 1887 and 1937, before the establishment of regular Meetings of ...
s and was asked by the Prime Minister to sit on the
Rowell–Sirois Commission
The Rowell–Sirois Commission officially known as the Royal Commission on Dominion–Provincial Relations was a Canadian Royal Commission looking into the Canadian economy and federal–provincial relations. It was called in 1937 and reported in ...
studying federal–provincial relations. Dafoe opposed
appeasement of
fascist dictator
A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...
s and urged the government to prepare for a major war, which he accurately predicted would begin in 1939.
He advocated
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
policies.
He refused a
consular position in Washington, a
knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
, and a seat in the
Senate of Canada. He also declined to stand for
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
.
[
His son, Edwin Dafoe, became managing editor of the ''Free Press'' and his grandson, John Dafoe, became the editor of '']The Montreal Star
''The Montreal Star'' was an English-language Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It closed in 1979 in the wake of an eight-month pressmen's strike.
It was Canada's largest newspaper until the 1950s and remained the domina ...
'' and later editorial page editor of the '' Winnipeg Free Press
The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...
''. His grandson Christopher Dafoe was editor of '' The Beaver''.
Works
* ''Over the Canadian Battlefields'' (1919)
* ''Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics'' (1922)
* ''Canada: An American Nation'' (1935)
References
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Further reading
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External links
Description of John W. Dafoe's archives at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections
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Canadian political commentators
Canadian newspaper editors
Canadian male journalists
Journalists from Manitoba
Journalists from Ontario
1866 births
1944 deaths
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Presidents of the Canadian Political Science Association
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