Charles Braithwaite

Charles Braithwaite (1850 – June 9, 1910) was a Manitoba politician and agrarian leader. From 1891 to 1897, he was the leader of the province's Patrons of Industry.

Braithwaite was born in Folston, England. A farmer's son with little formal education, he left England for Canada in the 1870s, initially living in Durham, Ontario but moving to Manitoba in 1881. After shifting between cities and jobs for a few years, he settled as a farmer in Portage la Prairie in 1883.

In 1891, Braithwaite joined the Farmers' Institute, an educational and lobbying group representing the concerns of farmers. He also joined a Patrons of Industry local in the spring of the same year. A powerful orator, Braithwaite was elected Grand President of the Manitoba Patrons at their first provincial convention in November, and held this position until January 1897.

The Patrons of Industry were originally an agrarian fraternal organization and discussion forum operating throughout the United States and Canada. In Ontario and Manitoba, they followed in the tradition of earlier agrarian groups by opposing the national policy of John A. Macdonald's Conservative government. Under the national policy, Manitoba farmers were required to pay high prices for equipment while receiving relatively low prices for their goods. Braithwaite was able to lead a populist movement in opposition to this policy, using the slogan "Manitoba for Manitobans" to promote his organization's goals.

During Braithwaite's first three years as Patron leader, the organization focused on agrarian cooperation via the Patrons Commercial Union. This union failed due to poor management, after its members refused to contribute enough materials to attract commercial interests.

The Manitoba Patrons turned to direct political action in 1894. Originally a Liberal, Braithwaite encouraged the party to run its own candidates in provincial and federal elections to protest existing political corruption. Braithwaite himself conducted a successful tour of the province to spread this message. By the end of the year, membership in the Manitoba Patrons had grown to about 5000, and the party had nominated candidates in all but two constituencies in anticipation of the next provincial election. In the summer of 1894, Patron candidate John Forsyth defeated Conservative leader John Andrew Davidson in a by-election for the Manitoba legislature. (Forsyth subsequently violated party policy by using a railway pass as a privilege of elected office, and was expelled from the Patrons in October 1895).

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