J. S. Woodsworth - Woodsworth's Legacy

Woodsworth's Legacy

J.S. Woodsworth strongly influenced Canadian social policy, and many of the social concepts he pioneered are represented in contemporary programs such as social assistance and medicare, which are deemed to be fundamentally important in Canadian society today. While the party for which he was central founder, today called the New Democratic Party, has largely abandoned Woodsworth's vision of a socialist Canada, Woodsworth's memory is still held in great respect within the party, and across Canada.

Woodsworth College of the University of Toronto, and J. S. Woodsworth Secondary School in Ottawa, Ontario (closed in 2005) are named after him. There is also a housing co-operative in downtown Toronto named after him. There is also a J.S. Woodsworth Senior Public School in Scarborough, Toronto. In Winnipeg a chrome coloured sixteen-story Manitoba provincial office building built in 1973 is named after him. The Ontario Woodsworth Memorial Foundation merged with the Douglas-Coldwell Foundation in 1987.

The Woodsworth home at 60 Maryland Street in Winnipeg, Manitoba is now the location of the Centre for Christian Studies. CCS purchased Woodsworth House from the Woodsworth Historical Society in 1998, with a commitment to keep the Woodsworth name and to continue to display photographs of Woodsworth and reminders of his commitment to the social gospel and social justice.

In 2004, a CBC contest rated Woodsworth as the 100th Greatest Canadian of all time.

In October 2010, the town of Gibsons, British Columbia announced that it would be naming a street in a new subdivision after Woodsworth. Woodsworth lived in Gibsons for a short time, beginning in 1917.