Daniel John O'Donoghue

Daniel John O'Donoghue (August 1, 1844 – January 16, 1907) was a printer, labour leader and political figure in Ontario. O'Donoghue is recognized as one of the original founders of organized labour in Canada and in 1874 he became the first labour candidate election to a Canadian legislature.

He was born near Killarney in Ireland in 1844 and came to Canada with his parents in 1852. Required to support his family after the death of his father, he became an apprentice to a printer in Ottawa at 13. He later spent time learning his trade as a printer while working in various places in the United States. In 1866, he returned to work in Ottawa, where he helped form Ottawa Typographical Union, later part of the International Typographical Union. In 1872, with Donald Robertson, he convinced Sir John A. Macdonald to introduce legislation legalizing trade unions. Later that year, O'Donoghue and Robertson helped found the Ottawa Trades Council; O'Donoghue became president in 1873. Later that year, he led an unsuccessful strike for a nine-hour day for printers. Also during that year, he helped found the Canadian Labour Union and became its first vice-president.

He was elected to the sole seat representing the City of Ottawa in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in an 1874 by-election. The City of Ottawa at the time was heavily populated by labourers brought in to help erect the Parliament Buildings on Parliament Hill and other structures for the new capital. The working class community was sharply divided between the Irish and French Canadian workers, but O'Donoghue helped personally bridge this gap through his marriage to Marie Cloutier. O'Donoghue's candidacy was made possible by the recent decision by Oliver Mowat's government to remove the property qualifications on running for office. O'Donoghue triumphed winning 59.2% of the vote, aided by the decision by the Liberal-Conservative to drop out on the day of the election. During his time in office, he lobbied for extending the vote to more people in the province, although he opposed extending the vote to women. He was reelected in 1875. Facing concerted opposition from both the Liberals and Conservatives, he lost in most of the city, but won a massive majority in the working-class neighbourhoods of Lowertown. By the next election things had changed, as a deep recession had deeply wounded the labour movement in Ottawa, O'Donoghue finished third.

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