J. B. Salsberg

Joseph Baruch (J.B.) Salsberg (November 5, 1902 – February 8, 1998) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Labor-Progressive member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1943 to 1955 who represented the riding of St. Andrew in downtown Toronto. He was a longtime Communist and activist in the Jewish community.

Early life Salsberg was born in 1902 to Abraham and Sarah Gitel Salsberg in the small town of Lagow (Lagov, in Yiddish pronunciation), in the Opatow district of Radom in what is now Poland. He emigrated to Canada with his parents in 1913 at age 11, settling in Toronto. His father worked as a peddler to support his wife and seven children. Joseph dropped out of Landsdowne Public School after two years, at the age of 13, in order to work in sweatshops full-time for $3 a week to help support the family but continued to study at night to be a rabbi in the Orthodox tradition. He joined a Labour Zionist workers' group, the Young Poale Zion, and quickly rose to leadership going to New York City to serve as general secretary of the North American group from 1922 to 1924, editing its newspaper and going on speaking tours across the continent. He returned to Toronto and became an organizer for the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union and, in 1927, married Dora Wilensky who later became a social worker with Jewish Family and Child Services.

In the 1943 provincial election he ran as the Labor-Progressive Party candidate in the downtown Toronto riding of St. Andrew. He defeated Liberal incumbent J.J. Glass by 5,150 votes. The Labor-Progressive Party (LPP) as the Communist Party of Ontario was known had been founded as the legal face of the Communist Party which had been banned in 1941. Salsberg was elected alongside fellow LPPer A.A. MacLeod who represented the neighbouring riding of Bellwoods. He was re-elected in 1945, 1948, and 1951.

Salsberg was a popular MPP inside and outside the house and was respected by members of all parties. He was instrumental in the introduction of the Racial Discrimination Act, 1944 which he proposed as a result of posted notices banning Jews and Blacks from various swimming pools in Toronto and as a result of other cases of anti-Semitism and racism in the province. The law was one of the foundations that led to the eventual passage of the Ontario Human Rights Code.

Most of his speeches were non-ideological, and he almost never made reference to the Soviet Union during his time in the legislature. Leslie Frost, the province's Progressive Conservative Premier from 1949 to 1961, respected Salsberg's abilities as a parliamentarian; it has even been reported that Frost was willing to offer Salsberg a cabinet position if he defected to the Progressive Conservative Party. Frost named Salsberg Township near what is now Thunder Bay in his honour.

Break with Communism Salsberg had for several years been concerned with official antisemitism in the Soviet Union, and had confronted Canadian Communist leader Tim Buck on the subject as early as 1939. He remained silent on the matter for several years (in part to maintain party unity during World War II), but became increasingly troubled by ongoing anti-Semitism in the 1950s. He travelled to the USSR in 1955 and 1956, and witnessed first-hand the extent of the anti-Semitic campaign that had persecuted Jews in that country.

Salsberg attempted to personally confront Nikita Khrushchev on the matter during his second visit, but his concerns were dismissed. Also disillusioned by Soviet invasion of Hungary and Khrushchev's Secret Speech, he resigned from the Communist Party upon his return to Canada (leading an exodus which included half the national executive). Salsberg reported back to the Labor-Progressive Party and an allied organization, the United Jewish Peoples' Order on his findings. He was suspended for a time from the leadership of the LPP as a result and, after an internal debate, left the LPP along with most of its Jewish cadre. The UJPO supported Salsberg's findings and severed its ties with the party. Nevertheless, Salsberg and a number of his supporters continued to argue for UJPO to distance itself further from the Soviet Union until he and approximately 200 UJPO members, approximately one-third of the organization, resigned in 1959 and founded the New Fraternal Jewish Association in 1960 in which Salsberg was a leading member until his death.

Later life The late 1950s were a period of tragedy for Salsberg: in addition to losing his belief in communism (and his seat in the legislature), his wife Dora died in 1959. He withdrew from political activity for a time, and sold insurance to make a living. There are reports that he was eventually able to make a small fortune through this practice.

Salsberg later rejoined the Canadian Jewish Congress (which had previously expelled its Communist members). In 1959 he and about one-third of the membership of UJPO left, feeling that the organization was not critical enough of the Soviet Union, and started a new organization called the New Fraternal Jewish Association. The NFJA was made up primarily of former Jewish Communists still interested in promoting social justice. Salsberg was also involved in a variety of cultural activities, including Yiddish-language programs.

Salsberg also returned to Labour Zionism and, in his old age, was a longtime columnist for the Canadian Jewish News until shortly before his death.

Election results

Municipal - Ward 4 (Two aldermen elected) January 1936 Ward 4 (Kensington Market and Garment District) Robert Hood Saunders (incumbent) - 4,941 Nathan Phillips (incumbent) - 4,811 H.M. Goodman - 2,466 J.B. Salsberg - 2,343 Max Federman - 816 S.C. Schiller - 225

December 1936 Ward 4 (Kensington Market and Garment District) Nathan Phillips (incumbent) - 4,127 Robert Hood Saunders (incumbent) - 3,884 J.B. Salsberg - 3,633 Herbert Orliffe - 813 Albert Leslie - 673

1937 Ward 4 (Kensington Market and Garment District) Nathan Phillips (incumbent) - 5,002 J.B. Salsberg - 4,725 David A. Balfour - 3,172 Hyman Langer - 1,967 Joseph Stewart - 1,211

1939 Ward 4 (The Annex, Kensington Market and Garment District) Nathan Phillips (incumbent) - 7,230 David A. Balfour - 6,339 J.B. Salsberg (incumbent) - 5,830 Joseph Stewart - 1,216

1940 Ward 4 (The Annex, Kensington Market and Garment District) Nathan Phillips (incumbent) - 5,427 Robert Hood Saunders - 4,900 Claude Pearce - 2,761 J.B. Salsberg - 2,154 Louis Zuker - 1,362 Lloyd Muritt - 381

1943 Ward 4 (The Annex, Kensington Market and Garment District) J. B. Salsberg - 4,783 Nathan Phillips (incumbent) - 2,472 David Balfour (incumbent) - 2,432 Herbert Orliffe - 2,093 William Condle - 290

Provincial election results

+ 1937 Ontario general election: St. AndrewPartyCandidate Votes Vote % Liberal J.J. Glass 6,481 38.6 Labour Joseph B. Salsberg 6,302 37.6 Conservative Nathan Phillips 3,097 18.5 Co-operative Commonwealth Harry Simon 890 5.3Total 16,770

+ 1943 Ontario general election: St. AndrewPartyCandidate Votes Vote % Conservative John Grudeff 2,452 17.7 Liberal J.J. Glass 2,284 16.5 Co-operative Commonwealth Murray Cotterill 1,689 12.2Total 13,859

+ 1945 Ontario general election: St. AndrewPartyCandidate Votes 179 out of 200 polls. Vote % Conservative E.A Goodman 3,870 21.5 Co-operative Commonwealth Percy Easser 2,373 13.2 Liberal Thomas Harcourt 2,186 12.1Total 18,009

+ 1948 Ontario general election: St. AndrewPartyCandidate Votes Vote % Conservative Nathan Phillips 4,903 24.7 Co-operative Commonwealth J. Friedman 3,340 16.8 Liberal Frank R. Mills 1,770 8.9Total 19,864

+ 1951 Ontario general election: St. AndrewPartyCandidate Votes Vote % Conservative Louis Herman 3,854 29.5 Liberal Alfred Green 2,183 16.7 Co-operative Commonwealth Sam Resnick 1,854 14.2Total 13,055

+ 1955 Ontario general election: St. AndrewPartyCandidate Votes Vote % Conservative Allan Grossman 5,060 41.2 Co-operative Commonwealth Boris Mather 1,446 11.8 Liberal L.S. Lockhart 1,231 10.0 Independent Elizabeth Langfield 150 1.2Total 12,267

Federal 1935 Canadian federal election: SpadinaPartyCandidateVotes LiberalSamuel Factor14,768 ConservativeNathan Phillips 10,047

Co-operative CommonwealthJacob Romer1,866

Spadina By-election, after David Croll was appointed to the Senate, 24 October 1955PartyCandidateVotes Progressive ConservativeCharles E. Rea 6,740 LiberalSamuel Godfrey6,096

Co-operative CommonwealthHarry Waisglass 2,873