John Wesley Dafoe (8 March 1866 – 9 January 1944) was a Canadian
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
. 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 Liberal politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime min ...
.
Dafoe was one of the country's most influential and powerful Liberal journalists. During his tenure, the ''Free Press'' was among the most important newspapers in Canada and was respected 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
The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was one of the most famous and influential strikes in Canadian history. For six weeks, May 15 to June 26, more than 30,000 strikers brought economic activity to a standstill in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which at the ...
. He claimed credit for his paper that Winnipeg adopted
Single Transferable Voting
The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vo ...
for city elections in 1920.
Dafoe accompanied
Prime Minister
A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who was the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal ...
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 studying federal–provincial relations. In the late 1930s Dafoe opposed
appeasement
Appeasement, in an International relations, international context, is a diplomacy, diplomatic negotiation policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power (international relations), power with intention t ...
of
fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
dictators 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. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...
policies. He refused prestigious appointments, including a
consular position in Washington, a
knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a 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.
The concept of a knighthood ...
, and a seat in the
Senate of Canada
The Senate of Canada () is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, they compose the Bicameralism, bicameral le ...
. 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: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
.
[
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 dominan ...
'' and later editorial page editor of the '' Winnipeg Free Press
The ''Free Press'' (or FP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press''; previously known as the ''Winnipeg Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, natio ...
''. His grandson Christopher Dafoe was editor of '' The Beaver''. His daughter, Julie Annette Elizabeth Dafoe, was Head Librarian of the University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...
from 1937 to 1960 (its main library now bears her name).
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
{{Canada-journalist-stub