James Shaver Woodsworth's lifelong willingness to obey his conscience, no matter the consequences-and there were many-earned him both the respect of his contemporaries and an esteemed place in Canadian history.

Woodsworth was born near Toronto in 1874 into a Methodist minister's family. In 1882, his family moved to Winnipeg. Woodsworth followed in his father's footsteps, studying for the ministry in Manitoba and then, in 1899, at Oxford.

In London, he was shocked by the contrast between the city's majesty and cultural achievements and the abject poverty of so many of its citizens.

On returning to Canada, Woodsworth served as a minister and in 1904, married Lucy Staples-she would wholeheartedly support him throughout their married life. Woodsworth soon became impatient with his church's focus on individual salvation and decided to join the All Peoples Mission in North Winnipeg. Here, he, like Abraham Heaps, encountered socialist ideas, and began to ponder the political and social causes behind the desperation in which many Winnipeg workers lived.

In 1914, World War I broke out. A committed pacifist, Woodsworth, in 1917, publicly opposed the government's call on men to register themselves for possible conscription (involuntary entry into the armed forces). For this, he was ostracized and left without work. Woodsworth and his family left Winnipeg to take a position at a mission station based in Gibson's Landing, British Columbia. Unfortunately, he offended a storekeeper by shopping at the local Co-op, and felt forced to resign.

Desperate to support his wife and six children, Woodsworth joined Vancouver's longshoremen, loading and unloading ships. Here he met unionist and socialist Ernest Winch and became a committed democratic socialist. (Socialists hold that the community as a whole should own and control wealth production, distribution, and exchange, in order to stop the gross economic inequalities that develop in a system based on private enterprise.) Woodsworth happened to be in Winnipeg when 1919's general strike broke out, and he wrote on behalf of the strikers. Arrested for "sedition" he was released with charges hanging over him that would never be heard.

In 1921, Woodsworth ran for Parliament as an Independent Labour Party candidate in Winnipeg Centre. His constituents would return him to Ottawa five more times. In 1925, Mackenzie King's Liberals formed a minority government; Woodsworth and Abraham Heaps joined forces and informed King that if he wanted to stay in power with the help of their votes, he would have to honour the Liberal Party's 1919 resolution to introduce old age pensions.

During his parliamentary career, Woodsworth travelled the country tirelessly, speaking on socialism. In 1932, he and his associates responded to the Great Depression by forming the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the forerunner of today's New Democratic Party. The CCF's presence pushed the other parties, especially the Liberals, further to the left.

Woodsworth, true to his conscience as always, broke with his own party in 1939 to voice his opposition to Canada's participation in World War II. He died in Vancouver, in 1942.

Had he remained in the pulpit, J.S. Woodsworth would have been earning about $3,000 per year (almost $58.00 per week) during the 1920s. What was the purchasing power of such an income? To find out, visit our page exploring 1920s prices.