Murray Cotterill (June 27, 1913 – February 23, 1995) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

activist and organizer for the

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; , FCC) was a federal democratic socialism, democratic socialistThe following sources describe the CCF as a democratic socialist political party: * * * * * * and social democracy, social-democ ...

(CCF). In the 1930s, Cotterill was one of the organisers of the Co-operative Commonwealth Youth Movement. In the 1940s he was a CCF municipal candidate in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and, in 1942, ran for the leadership of the

Ontario CCF The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section) – The Farmer-Labor Party of Ontario, more commonly known as the Ontario CCF, was a democratic socialist provincial political party in Ontario that existed from 1932 to 1961. It was the pr ...

, losing to

Ted Jolliffe Edward Bigelow Jolliffe (March 2, 1909 – March 18, 1998) was a Canadian social democratic politician and lawyer from Ontario. He was the first leader of the Ontario section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Ontario Section), Co ...

. He was also an aide to

Charles Millard Charles Hibbert (Charlie) Millard (August 25, 1896 – November 24, 1978) was a Canadian trade union activist and politician. Early life He was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, the son of a railroad repairman, and first trained as a carpenter. Mil ...

in organizing the

Steel Workers Organizing Committee The Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) was one of two precursor labor organizations to the United Steelworkers. It was formed by the CIO ( Committee for Industrial Organization) on June 7, 1936. It disbanded in 1942 to become the United Ste ...

and was active in rooting out

Communists Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, d ...

in the fledgling

Steelworkers Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high elastic modulus, yield strength, fracture strength and low raw material cost, steel is one of the m ...

union and was the union's public relations director for many years. Cotterill was also president of the Toronto Labour Council of the

Canadian Congress of Labour The Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL; ) was a trade union federation in Canada. Affiliated with the United States–based Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It was founded in 1940 and merged with Trades and Labour Congress of Canada (TLC ...

(one of two labour councils in the city) in the late 1940s. He worked as a labour relations specialist for the Canadian Congress of Labour and its successor the

Canadian Labour Congress The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC ( or ), is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in Canada to which most Canadian trade union, labour unions are affiliated. History Formation The CLC was founded on April 23, 1956, thro ...

and was for a time in the 1940s and 1950s the director of the CCL's national Political Action Committee, a position he used to encourage closer ties between the labour movement and the CCF. Cotterill was also the leading force in the OFL's Political Action Committee which helped create an informal alliance between the CCF and the labour movement that later led to the formation of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

as a formal CLC-CCF project. In the 1963 provincial election he was the NDP's candidate in the suburban Toronto riding of Lakeshore losing to Progressive Conservative

Alan Eagleson Robert Alan Eagleson (born April 24, 1933) is a disbarred Canadian lawyer, hockey agent and promoter. Clients that he represented included superstars Bobby Orr and Darryl Sittler. He was the first executive director of the NHL Players Assoc ...

. In late 1963, Cotterill was involved with what were described as "secret" negotiations with

John Wintermeyer John Joseph Wintermeyer (December 4, 1916 – December 20, 1993) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1955 to 1963 who represented the riding of Waterloo North. From 1958 to ...

, outgoing leader of the

Ontario Liberal Party The Ontario Liberal Party (OLP; , PLO) is a political party in the province of Ontario, Canada. The party has been led by Bonnie Crombie since December 2023. The party espouses the principles of liberalism, with their rival the Progressive Co ...

and various federal Liberals in pursuit of co-operation between the two parties and even their eventual fusion. Cotterill was reportedly offered the vice-presidency of the Ontario Liberal Party but declined. The talks ended due to the opposition of Ontario NDP leader

Donald C. MacDonald Donald Cameron MacDonald (December 7, 1913 – March 8, 2008) was a Canadians, Canadian politician. Referred to in the media as the "best Premier of Ontario, premier Ontario never had," he represented the provincial riding of York South ( ...

. Several leading Ontario Liberals also came out against the talks when they learned of them. From 1940 until his retirement in 1972, Cotterill worked as public relations director of the Canadian Steelworkers and was also an occasional columnist for the ''Toronto Star''. He was a vocal opponent of

the Waffle The Waffle (officially known as the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada after 1972) was a radical wing of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, ...

, a left-wing faction within the NDP in the early 1970s and called for the group to be disbanded or expelled from the party."Why we must stop the Waffle", Murray Cotterill, ''Toronto Star'', June 22, 1972 In retirement, Cotterill moved to

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

and spent two years working for the

Saskatchewan New Democratic Party The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (Saskatchewan NDP or Sask NDP), branded as the Saskatchewan New Democrats, is a social democratic political party in Saskatchewan, Canada. The party was founded in 1932 as the Farmer-Labour Group and was kno ...

government of

Allan Blakeney Allan Emrys Blakeney (September 7, 1925April 16, 2011) was a Canadian politician who served as the tenth premier of Saskatchewan from 1971 to 1982. Originally from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Blakeney moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, and worked in t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cotterill, Murray 1913 births 1995 deaths Trade unionists from Ontario United Steelworkers people Ontario New Democratic Party candidates in Ontario provincial elections Saskatchewan New Democratic Party politicians Canadian Labour Congress people Canadian Congress of Labour people