Henry Wise Wood
This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2009) |
Henry Wise Wood CMG | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | June 10, 1941 | (aged 81)
Citizenship | Canadian |
Known for | Agrarian theorist |
Title | President |
Term | 1916-1931 |
Movement | United Farmers of Alberta |
Henry Wise Wood,
Background and early career
Wood was born on a farm near Monroe City, Missouri to a prosperous farming family with land holding in Missouri and Texas. He became an accomplished stockman while still a teenager. At the age of 44 he visited Alberta and the following year (1905) purchased a wheat farm and moved his family to Carstairs, Alberta.[1]
Leadership of United Farmers of Alberta
An earnest student of agrarian reform, he had observed the Alliance and Populist movements in Missouri during the 1890s and after relocating to Canada soon joined the Society for Equity, an early farm association. In 1909 the Society for Equity merged with the Alberta Farmers' Association to form the United Farmers of Alberta. In 1914 Wood became a director of the UFA; in 1915 he was elected vice-president and was president from 1916 to 1931.
Class conflict ideology
Wood became well known as the main theorist and head of the radical Albertan branch of the wave of agrarian discontent that was sweeping Canada at the time. He consistently refused to run for office. After initial opposition due to past experience with will-fated political farm organizations in the U.S., he backed the United Farmers when they began to engage in direct politics - running for office - and also supported the Progressive Party of Canada and UFA candidates federally. Wood's basic ideology was one of supporting farmers' class interests against bankers and industrialists and hope for birth of cooperative society. He put forward new idea of representative government - the concept of "group government" - in which a legislature proportionally representing each sector of the society would replace the existing parliamentary system where political parties represent narrow class interests.[2] [3]
Later life
Appointed a
He died in 1941. A school in
References
- ^ a b "Henry Wise Wood" Archived 2017-09-21 at the Wayback Machine. The Canadian Encyclopedia
- ^ Irvine, Farmers in Politics (1920)
- ^ Rolph, Henry Wise Wood of Alberta
Works cited
- Rolph, William Kirby (1950). Henry Wise Wood of Alberta. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.