E. T. Kingsley

Eugene Thornton Kingsley (1856 – December 9, 1929) was a founder and leader of the Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) and editor of Western Clarion, the SPC's official publication in early twentieth-century Canada.

Early life Little is known of Kingsley's early life. Born in 1856 in Pomfret, Chautauqua County, New York, Kingsley came from a modest, middle-class background. He spent his early years in the US, moving with his family from New York to Ohio, to Wisconsin, and finally to Minnesota, where he settled with his wife, Almyra "Myra" Doan, whom he had married in 1878 and with whom he had two sons. Kingsley himself kept moving west working on the railroad, eventually arriving in Montana as a brakeman for the Northern Pacific Railway. After his convalescence, Kingsley divorced and moved to San Francisco, where he quickly became the state organizer for the Socialist Labor Party of America. He also ran twice for the US Congress under the SLP banner. However, he left the party after falling out with its leader, Daniel De Leon, over De Leon's shift toward syndicalism.

Political life and work in British Columbia In 1902, the Nanaimo Socialist Club invited Kingsley to speak on a tour of Vancouver Island. His impact was such that he was asked to stay. The club first sponsored Kingsley as a fishmonger, then as a printer. He did not write for the publication again.

Kingsley became active in the British Columbia Federated Labour Party, where he served as a vice-president and then as president. From 1915 to 1918, he contributed to and later edited the BCFL's Federationist newspaper. In 1919, he edited the weekly paper, Labour Star. During this period, he published his most substantive work, "The Genesis and Evolution of Slavery" (1916).

Throughout, Kingsley continued to seek elected office. He ran as a Socialist Party of Canada candidate for the British Columbia Legislative Assembly in the multiple-member Vancouver City riding in the 1907 and 1909 provincial elections as well as a 1909 by-election. He also ran for Parliament as an SPC candidate in the riding of Vancouver City in the 1908 and 1911 Canadian federal elections and as an independent labour candidate in the riding of Vancouver Centre in the 1926 Canadian federal election.