Richard Rigg

Richard Arthur Rigg (January 5, 1872 and is notable as the first member of the Social Democratic Party to serve in that body.

Rigg was born in Todmorden, Lancashire, England, and came to Canada in 1903. He was a bookbinder as well as a Methodist minister, and served as a first permanent business agent of the Winnipeg Trades Council. He was initially a member of the Socialist Party of Canada, but broke away from the SPC in 1911 to help form the Social Democratic Party. Along with Jacob Penner and Herman Saltzman, he co-authored the SDP's first manifesto.

By 1917 he had a wife and five children.

Rigg campaigned for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1911 federal election, but finished third in the riding of Winnipeg against Conservative Alexander Haggart.

In 1913, Rigg was elected to the Winnipeg City Council The Socialist Party did not field candidates against them, however. Rigg's success was credited, in part, to strong support from members of north end ethnic communities.

In the legislature, Rigg pressed for improvements to Manitoba's Factories Act, and unsuccessfully attempted to raise the minimum age of factory labour, to outlaw child labour. Rigg was generally supportive of the provincial Liberal government of Tobias Norris, claiming that the Norris administration did more for labour in its first six months than the previous Conservative administration of Rodmond Roblin had done in fifteen years.

Rigg resigned from the legislature in 1917 to run again as a candidate for the Canadian House of Commons.

He called for a referendum on the conscription issue. Government supporters responded by accusing Rigg's supporters of disloyalty. He was unsuccessful, losing to Union government candidate Matthew Robert Blake by a margin of 9,656 votes to 3,472. Many working-class voters in Winnipeg did not vote to oppose Borden's government in wartime.

Rigg himself joined the Canadian Army in 1917 and served overseas.

After his return, he served as Superintendent of Employment Offices for Western Canada from 1919 to 1922, and as Director of the Employment Service of the Department of Labour in 1922. He retired in 1940.

In 1919, as a prominent war veteran, he drafted a motion asking the Great War Veterans' Association to support the Winnipeg General Strike. It was approved by the Great War Veterans' Association.