Article

Daniel John O'Donoghue

Published Online January 24, 2008

Last Edited March 4, 2015

Daniel John O'Donoghue, printer, trade union leader, politician (b at Lakes of Killarney, Ire 1844; d at Toronto 16 Jan 1907). "The father of the Canadian labor movement" began his apprenticeship as a printer in Ottawa
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O'Donoghue was elected to the Ontario legislature in 1874 as an independent workingman (courtesy Library and Archives Canada).

O'Donoghue, Daniel John

 Daniel John O'Donoghue, printer, trade union leader, politician (b at Lakes of Killarney, Ire 1844; d at Toronto 16 Jan 1907). "The father of the Canadian labor movement" began his apprenticeship as a printer in Ottawa at age 13. He helped to organize the Ottawa Typographical Union, 1867, promoted the Ottawa Trades Council, and was elected vice-president of the Canadian Labor Union in 1873. He was elected to the Ontario legislature in 1874 as an independent workingman, but moved ever closer to Oliver MOWAT's Liberal government. As chairman of the legislative committee of the Toronto Trades and Labor Council, he was at the centre of labour politics in the 1880s. Joining the KNIGHTS OF LABOR in October 1882, O'Donoghue quickly emerged as the chief Canadian lieutenant, handling the delicate negotiations with French Canadian Roman Catholic bishops who had condemned the order as a "secret society." Although loyal to what he thought best for his class, he remained a Liberal partisan. Appointed a clerk in the Ontario Bureau of Industry in 1885, he was Canada's first federal fair-wages officer, 1900-07. His son John was to become Canada's first prominent labour lawyer.