Alexander Whyte Wright, journalist, labour leader, politician (b at Elmira, Ont 17 Dec 1845; d c 1919). After some business attempts in southwestern Ontario, he became a journalist and newspaper editor in the 1870s. Although a Conservative and prominent advocate of the national policy, he endorsed currency and labour reform. He believed in the primacy of workers, farmers and productive manufacturers, and in the 1880s became a prominent Knights of Labor leader, first in Toronto and then in the US, becoming secretary of the order and editor of the Journal of the Knights of Labor, 1889-93. Returning to Ontario after the order's virtual collapse in 1893, he served as a royal commissioner to investigate sweatshop labour for the Tory federal government (1895). He edited a Toronto Tory labour paper 1909-14 and later was made vice-chairman of the Ontario Workmen's Compensation Board. A talented writer and orator, Wright was both charlatan and reformer and undoubtedly the best Canadian example of a mediator between the working class and the traditional political party.
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- MLA 8TH EDITION
- Kealey, Gregory S. . "Alexander Whyte Wright". The Canadian Encyclopedia, 16 December 2013, Historica Canada. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alexander-whyte-wright. Accessed 05 November 2024.
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- APA 6TH EDITION
- Kealey, G. (2013). Alexander Whyte Wright. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alexander-whyte-wright
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- CHICAGO 17TH EDITION
- Kealey, Gregory S. . "Alexander Whyte Wright." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published January 24, 2008; Last Edited December 16, 2013.
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- TURABIAN 8TH EDITION
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Alexander Whyte Wright," by Gregory S. Kealey, Accessed November 05, 2024, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/alexander-whyte-wright
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Alexander Whyte Wright
Article by Gregory S. Kealey
Published Online January 24, 2008
Last Edited December 16, 2013
Alexander Whyte Wright, journalist, labour leader, politician (b at Elmira, Ont 17 Dec 1845; d c 1919). After some business attempts in southwestern Ontario, he became a journalist and newspaper editor in the 1870s.