The Nine Hour Pioneers: The Genesis of the Canadian Labour Movement

This paper documents the attempt to obtain the nine-hour working day in Canada during the first six months of 1872. The primary role of the working class of Hamilton and Montreal is indicated and the view is taken that the Toronto Printers' Strike obscured, rather than advanced, the aims of the nine-hour movement. It is argued that, while there was certainly developing a class identity and a trade union consciousness, there existed only an inchoate sense of class consciousness among Canadian workers during the early 1870s.