William Horace Temple - Young Adulthood

Young Adulthood

After World War I, Temple was treated as a war hero by his employer. The Arrow Shirt Company president met Temple's train in Montreal, where he promoted him to travelling salesman for the company's Winnipeg office.

It was in Winnipeg where Temple – who had been a staunch Conservative, supporting Prime Ministers Sir Robert Borden and Arthur Meighan – was captivated by the speeches of local socialist clergyman and politician J.S. Woodsworth, and became a socialist in 1921. Temple would regularly encounter Woodsworth, then a member of parliament in Ottawa, on train trips for his sales job. Arrow moved him and his wife Mary to Regina, Saskatchewan where he met Major James Coldwell, who at the time, was the principal at the school that she taught at. Coldwell was the leader of the Independent Labour party (ILP), and Temple would drive him to political rallies and events during this period. Another important socialist figure that he met at this time, was Clarence Fines, an assistant principal at Coldwell's school. They would go door-to-door to raise money for the ILP. Fines would later become the finance minister in Tommy Douglas's Saskatchewan government during the 1940s and 1950s. Temple joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) when it was formed by Woodsworth and his followers in 1932.