Another eloquent opponent of Canadian involvement in a European war was J.S. Woodsworth, the pacifist leader of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (the forerunner of the NDP) shown here addressing a political meeting. In the House of Commons on September 8,1939, Woodsworth told a hushed audience:
I am among a considerable number in this country who believe and we hold it as a mature conviction that war is the inevitable outcome of the present economic and international system with its injustices, exploitation5 and class interests. I suggest that the common people of the country gain nothing by slaughtering the common people of any other country. As one who has tried for a good many years to take a stand for the common people, personally I cannot give my consent to anything that will drag us into another war. It may be said that the boys who stay out are cowards. I have every respect for the man who, with a sincere conviction, goes out to give his life if necessary in a cause which he believes to be right; but I have just as much respect for the man who refuses to enlist to kill his fellowmen and, as under modern conditions, to kill women and children as well, as must be done on every front. These facts ought to be faced.
Woodsworth's policy was repudiated by the majority of his party's Council, which opted for qualified approval of the war effort. In 1940 Woodsworth resigned the leadership and was made honourary president of the party. He died in 1942 after 21 years as a member of parliament.
