Humphrey Mitchell

Humphrey Mitchell, (September 9, 1894 – August 1, 1950) was a Canadian politician and trade unionist.

Life and career A land surveyor employed with Hamilton Hydro, Mitchell was active with the union movement in the city. Upon the death of Hamilton East's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), George Septimus Rennie in 1931, Mitchell was approached to run in the by-election to fill the seat as a Labour candidate. Hamilton East was a strong working class riding that had elected Labour candidates to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and to city council.

The Liberals, in opposition having lost the previous year's general election did not run a candidate against Mitchell in order to avoid dividing the anti-Conservative vote. Given future events, it is also possible Liberal party leaders believed that Mitchell would support the Liberal Party unofficially if elected.

Mitchell won the by-election and entered the House of Commons of Canada. He did not get along well with the rump of Independent Labour MPs led informally by J.S. Woodsworth and referred to as the "Ginger Group". While Mitchell attended the "founding meeting" of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in William Irvine's office, he refused to join the new party when Labour MPs joined with farmers groups, socialist groups and others to officially launch the CCF in 1932 and refused to work with its supporters in Parliament.

In the 1935 general election, the CCF ran a candidate in Hamilton East against Mitchell (the Liberals again ran no candidate). The use of the first past the post election system and the split in the anti-Tory vote resulted in the Conservative candidate winning, despite a country-wide trend against the Conservatives.

Mitchell ran for and was acclaimed to the Hamilton Board of Education as a school trustee that December.

Mitchell did not run in the 1940 election. Following the death of Welland's Liberal MP in late 1941, William Lyon Mackenzie King appointed Mitchell to the Cabinet as Minister of Labour. Mitchell was elected shortly thereafter as the MP for Welland. He served as Welland's MP and as Labour minister in the governments of King and Louis St. Laurent until his death in 1950.

Mitchell became Labour minister just over a year after the introduction of unemployment insurance in Canada and oversaw the early implementation and expansion of the program. He also oversaw the mobilization of the labour force during World War II and widespread involvement of women in war production.

The department of labour he led had responsibility for immigration so he played a role in the controversial deportation and internment of tens of thousands of Japanese Canadians during World War II.

Electoral record

Votes %

Note: Candidate campaign colours are used as a visual differentiation between candidates and to indicate affiliation. Sources: "Five School Trustees Are Not Opposed", Hamilton Spectator, November 22, 1935, pp. 7,17.