Researching Richard Rigg

Rigg was born in Todmorden, Lancashire, England, and came to Canada in 1903. He was a bookbinder as well as a Methodist minister, and served as a first permanent business agent of the Winnipeg Trades Council. He was initially a member of the Socialist Party of Canada, but broke away from the SPC in 1911 to help form the Social Democratic Party. Along with Jacob Penner and Herman Saltzman, he co-authored the SDP's first manifesto.

By 1917 he had a wife and five children.

Rigg campaigned for the House of Commons of Canada in the 1911 federal election, but finished third in the riding of Winnipeg against Conservative Alexander Haggart.

In 1913, Rigg was elected to the Winnipeg City Council for Ward Five in the city's north end. He received considerable support from the city's Jewish community, and in his victory speech pledged to support religious, national and political equality for all members of Canada's working class. Rigg's victory began a tradition of social-democratic representation in Winnipeg's council which has continued to the present day.

Rigg was elected to the Manitoba legislature in the provincial election of 1915, defeating Liberal candidate Solomon Hart Green by 231 votes in the Winnipeg North "B" constituency. Nominated as an SDP candidate, Rigg also received support from the more centrist Labour Representation Committee.

During the 1915 campaign, Rigg and fellow SDP candidate Arthur Beech emphasized both general reforms and the broader working-class struggle. Their meetings were often disrupted by members of the more hardline Socialist Party, who accused Rigg and Beech of being "sentimentalists and Christ-lovers". The Socialists did not field candidates against them, however, and could not prevent Rigg's victory. Rigg's success was credited, in part, to a strong support base among ethnic communities in Winnipeg's north end.

In the legislature, Rigg pressed for improvements to Manitoba's Factories Act, and unsuccessfully attempted to raise the minimum age of factory labour. Rigg was generally supportive of the provincial Liberal government of Tobias Norris, claiming that the Norris administration did more for labour in its first six months than the previous Conservative administration of Rodmond Roblin had done in fifteen years.

Rigg resigned from the legislature in 1917 to campaign for the Canadian House of Commons a second time. The SDP had initially nominated John Queen as its candidate in Winnipeg North, but the city's centrist labourites declared that Queen could not win and nominated Rigg in his place. Rigg's nomination was subsequently confirmed by special convention of Winnipeg's working-class organizations. He also received the endorsement of the "Laurier Liberals", who declined to offer a candidate of their own.

Rigg's campaign was based primarily on opposition to Prime Minister Robert Borden's policy of conscripting men for military service in World War I. He made the following statement during the campaign: "I regard human life as the supremely sacred thing and believe that if the state had adopted the policy of the conscription of money, industry and natural resources, there would be absolutely no necessity for the passing and enforcing of any scheme to conscript men".

He called for a referendum on the conscription issue, and also advocated the nationalization of industry. Government supporters responded by accusing Rigg's supporters of disloyalty. He was defeated, losing to government candidate Matthew Robert Blake by a margin of 9,656 votes to 3,472. Many working-class voters in Winnipeg were unwilling to oppose Borden's government in wartime.

Rigg himself joined the Canadian Army in 1917 and served overseas. In 1919, he drafted a motion supporting the Winnipeg General Strike that was approved by the Great War Veterans' Association. He served as Superintendent of Employment Offices for Western Canada from 1919 to 1922, and as Director of the Employment Service of the Department of Labour in 1922. He retired in 1940.

Born in Kendal, Cumberland, Rigg was elected at the 1900 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Appleby division of Westmorland. Aged only 23, his majority of 11% was a surprise, since Appleby had returned only Conservatives since 1885.

However, Rigg resigned from the Liberal party in November 1904 because he found himself in agreement with the Conservative government on so many key issues. The Liberals then selected Leif Jones as their candidate for the imminent by-election, and although campaigning began before Christmas, there was as yet no vacancy. Rigg claimed that the "ruffianism" of Liberals angry at his defection of the party had made him ill, and he went to an unnamed continental health resort to recover. He returned to England in February 1905, and resigned his seat 11 February 1905 by becoming Steward of the Manor of Northstead, telling the annual dinner of the Carlisle Conservative Club "I am proud to be one of you now ... I have the satisfaction of feeling that what I have done was conscientious and right." At the resulting by-election on 2 March 1905, Jones held the seat, though with a reduced majority.

Rigg subsequently served as a councillor on Westminster City Council, representing Great Marlborough ward from February 1924 to November 1925, and St Margaret ward from February 1930 until his death. He was elected Mayor of Westminster for 1939–40. He was a member of the Municipal Reform Party, the local government wing of the Conservatives.

He died at Hove, East Sussex in 1942, aged 65.