Winnipeg General Strike

Canadian history

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July 23, 2026

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The Winnipeg General Strike was a pivotal event in Canadian history that occurred in 1919. It was a six-week-long general strike that paralyzed Winnipeg and sparked sympathetic strikes across Canada. This labor revolt was fueled by increased union membership during World War I and the government's failure to control inflation. The strike was eventually suppressed by the federal government, which feared revolution. The strike's legacy includes a more progressive and politically active brand of trade unionism in western Canada, despite the swift collapse of the One Big Union (OBU) movement that emerged from it.12

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Sir Robert Borden
…arresting the leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike (1919) and of charging them under a revised definition of sedition that was rushed through Parliament in the form of an amendment to the criminal code won him the enmity of labour. He resigned in July 1920.
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…arresting the leaders of the Winnipeg General Strike (1919) and of charging them under a revised definition of sedition that was rushed through Parliament in the form of an amendment to the criminal code won him the enmity of labour. He resigned in July 1920.
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Canada
Turmoil at home
The Winnipeg General Strike was eventually crushed by a federal government gripped by a hysterical fear of revolution. By 1921 the labour revolt had subsided, partly because of federal intervention and partly because of the onset of an economic downturn that brought increased unemployment and a…
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The Winnipeg General Strike was eventually crushed by a federal government gripped by a hysterical fear of revolution. By 1921 the labour revolt had subsided, partly because of federal intervention and partly because of the onset of an economic downturn that brought increased unemployment and a…
Read More

organized labour
Challenges to pure-and-simple unionism
…moment of glory in the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, and for a few years thereafter it virtually displaced the TLC as the dominant movement in the four western provinces. The OBU, despite its swift collapse, left behind a significant regional legacy: thereafter, the western provinces would persistently be the…
Read More
…moment of glory in the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, and for a few years thereafter it virtually displaced the TLC as the dominant movement in the four western provinces. The OBU, despite its swift collapse, left behind a significant regional legacy: thereafter, the western provinces would persistently be the…
Read More