Leslie Tom Morris (October 10, 1904 – November 13, 1964) was a Welsh-

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politician, journalist and longtime member of the

Communist Party of Canada The Communist Party of Canada is a federal political party in Canada. Founded in 1921 under conditions of illegality, it is the second oldest active political party in Canada, after the Liberal Party of Canada. Although it does not currentl ...

and, its front group, the

Labor-Progressive Party The Labor-Progressive Party (LPP; ) was the legal Front organization, front of the Communist Party of Canada and its provincial wings from 1943 to 1959. It was established amid World War II after a number of prominent Communist Party members w ...

. He was leader of the Ontario Labor-Progressive Party in the 1940s and

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of the Communist Party of Canada from 1962 until his death in 1964.

Life and career

Morris was born in Somerset, England, to a Welsh

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family. He and his family immigrated to Canada in 1910. Morris returned to the UK in 1917 and lived in Wales and

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while working in the steel, coal mining and railway industries. He returned to Canada in time to join the Communist Party of Canada at its founding convention held December 1921 in

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. He became a prominent figure in the party first as secretary of the Young Communist League of Canada from 1923 to 1924, and then as editor over the years of various Communist newspapers including ''The Worker'', ''Daily Clarion'', ''Daily Tribune'' and ''Canadian Tribune''. Morris supported Tim Buck and the supporters of

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in the party during the factional struggles and purges of the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was a candidate for the

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on several occasions, but never elected: * In the 1940 election, he ran as a Communist in

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, coming in third place with 17% of the vote, which was larger than the number of votes separating the Conservative victor from the defeated

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incumbent, Abraham Albert Heaps. *In a 1954

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

, Morris was the Labor-Progressive candidate in the

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-area riding of York West, and came in fourth (and last) place with only 282 votes. *In the 1958 election, he ran in York South, placing fourth out of five candidates with 427 votes. *In the 1962 election, he ran for the Communist Party in the Toronto riding of Trinity winning 449 votes. *He tried again in the 1963 election in the same riding, and won 391 votes Morris also campaigned unsuccessfully for provincial office. In the Manitoba provincial election of 1932, he ran in the city of

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as a "United Front Workers" candidate (the Communist Party being under legal proscription at the time). At the time, the provincial constituency of

elected ten members by the

single transferable ballot 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 ...

system. Morris finished eighth on the first count, and came within 309 votes of winning the tenth seat on the final count. Had he won, he would have been the first Communist elected to a provincial legislature in Canada. Litterick would be elected in 1936 setting that record.) Morris was a popular stump speaker for the party and toured the country speaking to left wing and labour audiences. From 1954 until 1957, he was the national organizer of the Labor-Progressive Party (as the Communist Party had been known since 1943) and, in 1962, he succeeded Tim Buck as

General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of the Communist Party of Canada (as it was again known) and held the position until his death two years later.

Electoral record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Leslie 1904 births 1964 deaths Leaders of the Communist Party of Canada Canadian people of Welsh descent Welsh communists Leaders of the Communist Party of Canada (Ontario) Communist Party of Canada candidates in the 1940 Canadian federal election Labor-Progressive Party candidates in the 1958 Canadian federal election Communist Party of Canada candidates in the 1962 Canadian federal election Communist Party of Canada candidates in the 1963 Canadian federal election British emigrants to Canada Ontario candidates for Member of Parliament Manitoba candidates for Member of Parliament