Antigonish Movement - Timeline

Timeline

• 1891 Pope Leo XIII issues encyclical Rerum Novarum advocating Christian associations of workingmen for economic improvement
• 1890s-1900s Co-operative stores, co-operative creameries and fruit-growing co-ops established around Nova Scotia
• 1906 formation of the British Canadian Co-operative Society in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia
• 1912 Tompkins gains key contacts and ideas at the Conference of British Empire Universities
• 1917 British Canadian co-operative store in Sydney Mines organizes a conference on co-ops in Nova Scotia, sparking renewed interest
• 1921 Father Jimmy Tompkins publishes Knowledge for the People, an appeal to St. Francis Xavier University to implement a program of adult education
• 1922 St. FX loses patience with Tompkins and sends him into “exile” to Canso, Nova Scotia as parish priest
• 1924 George Keen, president of the Co-operative Union of Canada, visits Tompkins in Canso and advises him on co-operative development
• Summer of 1927 Father Jimmy’s work in Canso, Nova Scotia is featured in The Halifax Chronicle
• May 1928 a Canadian government commission advocates adult education as part of a strategy to save the Maritime fisheries
• November 1928 St. Francis Xavier University sets up adult education Extension Department and asks Father Moses Coady to be the Director
• October 29, 1929 stock market crash precipitates economic collapse around the Maritimes
• December 10, 1932 first credit union in Nova Scotia launched in Broad Cove
• 1933 first School for Leaders at St. Francis Xavier University
• 1938 formation of Credit Union Central of Nova Scotia (A.B. MacDonald, Director)
• Sept. 1944 A.B. MacDonald leaves for Ottawa to lead the Co-operative Union of Canada
• 1952 Death of A.B. MacDonald
• 1953 Death of Father Jimmy Tompkins
• July 28, 1959 Death of Moses Michael Coady