View source for Arthur Roebuck

{{Short description|Canadian politician}}
{{distinguish|John Arthur Roebuck}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name          = Arthur Roebuck
| image         = Arthur Wentworth Roebuck portrait.jpg
| imagesize     = 
| caption       = Roebuck, {{circa|1940s}}
| office        = [[Senate of Canada|Senator]]
| constituency  = Toronto-Trinity
| termstart     = 1945
| termend       = 1971 
| riding1       = [[Trinity (electoral district)|Trinity]]
| parliament1   = Canadian
| term_start1   = 1940
| term_end1     = 1945
| predecessor1  = [[Hugh John Plaxton]]
| successor1    = [[Larry Skey]]
| office2       = [[Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario)|Ontario MPP]]
| constituency2 = [[Bellwoods]]
| term_start2   = 1934
| term_end2     = 1940
| predecessor2  = [[Thomas Hamilton Bell|Thomas Bell]]
| successor2    = [[A.A. MacLeod]]
| party         = [[Liberal Party of Ontario|Liberal]]
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1878|02|28}}
| birth_place   = [[Hamilton, Ontario]], Canada
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1971|11|17|1878|02|28}}
| death_place   = [[Cobourg, Ontario]], Canada
| relations     = [[John Roebuck]], great-great grandfather
| occupation    = Journalist, lawyer
}}
'''Arthur Wentworth Roebuck''', {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|QC}}, (February 28, 1878 – November 17, 1971) was a Canadian politician and labour lawyer.

==Background==
Roebuck was born in [[Hamilton, Ontario]] in 1878 and grew up on a farm in Wellington County, near Guelph. He worked as a reporter for the ''[[Toronto Daily Star]]'' and in 1905 became owner/editor of the ''Temiskaming Herald'' in New Liskeard and the ''Cobalt Citizen''. He sold them in 1915 when he left to study law, graduating from Osgoode Hall after three years. In 1918, he married Inez Perry and together they raised one daughter.<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=Senator Arthur Roebuck: Lawyer, labor conciliator, journalist, politician often fought for the underdog |newspaper=Globe and Mail |date=November 18, 1971 |page=11}}</ref>

==Politics==

===Provincial===
Roebuck ran a Liberal candidate in Temiskaming in the [[1911 Ontario general election]] and the [[1914 Ontario general election]] but failed to get elected. He also ran in the [[1917 Canadian federal election]]. He was involved with the [[United Farmers of Ontario]] and its successor, the Progressive Party, in the 1920s before rejoining the Liberals.<ref name=obit/> He finally won a seat in the [[Legislative Assembly of Ontario]] in the [[1934 Ontario general election|1934 provincial election]] that brought the [[Ontario Liberal Party]] led by [[Mitchell Hepburn]] to power.<ref name="1934 Election Results">{{cite news |title=Detailed Election Results |newspaper=The Globe |date=June 21, 1934 |location=Toronto |page=3}}</ref>

Roebuck was a senior figure in the Hepburn government serving as [[Attorney-General of Ontario]] from 1934 to 1937 as well as Minister of Labour from 1934 until 1935. A progressive, Roebuck promoted the rights of Jews against the [[anti-Semitism]] that was still prevalent in 1930s Ontario, and defended the rights of trade unions. He broke with Hepburn over the government's handling of the 1937 [[Canadian Auto Workers|United Auto Workers]] strike against [[General Motors Corporation|General Motors]] in [[Oshawa]], and resigned in protest with fellow minister [[David Croll]]. Roebuck remained as the Liberal [[Member of the Legislative Assembly]] for the [[Toronto]] riding of [[Bellwoods]] until 1940.

He attempted to return to provincial politics running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party at its 1943 [[Ontario Liberal leadership conventions|leadership convention]] to succeed Hepburn, but finished second to [[Harry Nixon]].

===Federal===
Roebuck ran for a seat in the [[House of Commons of Canada]] in the [[1917 Canadian federal election|1917 federal election]] as a [[Laurier Liberal]], but was defeated.

Re-entering federal politics, Roebuck was elected [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] Member of Parliament for the [[Toronto]] [[electoral district (Canada)|riding]] of [[Trinity (electoral district)|Trinity]] in the [[1940 Canadian federal election|1940 federal election]] after successfully challenging sitting Liberal MP [[Hugh Plaxton]] for the party's nomination.<ref name="1940 results">{{cite news |title=Voting by riding in Federal election |newspaper=The Windsor Star |date=March 27, 1940 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=exo_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=W08MAAAAIBAJ&pg=4212%2C6053377 |page=9 |access-date=June 29, 2014}}</ref>

===Senate===
In 1945, he was appointed to the [[Senate of Canada]] by Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]], and remained in the [[Upper House]] until his death. At the outset of his appointment, he worked with the [[Canadian Jewish Congress]] and Rabbi [[Avraham Aharon Price]] to have young, Jewish refugees released from internment camps to study in Toronto.

He was an important figure in the [[civil liberties]] movement in Canada following the war. Following the [[Igor Gouzenko]] Affair, Roebuck opposed the government's suspension of the individual rights of individuals accused of espionage, and criticized the use of the Royal Commission on Espionage's transcripts in court. Later, he participated in the defence of Israel Halperin, one of the accused spies, and chaired the Senate Committee on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in 1950, advocating the creation of a Canadian Bill of Rights.

Roebuck opposed [[Pierre Elliott Trudeau]]'s Senate reform proposal in 1969.<ref>{{cite news |title=We won't be 'lackeys' Walker vows to Senate | newspaper=Toronto Daily Star |date=February 14, 1969 |page=B3}}</ref>

===Cabinet posts===
{{s-start}}
{{Canadian cabinet member navigational box header |ministry=Mitchell_Hepburn}}
{{ministry box cabinet posts
| post2preceded = [[William Herbert Price]]
| post2         = [[Attorney General of Ontario|Attorney General]]
| post2years    = 1934–1937
| post2note     =
| post2followed = [[Gordon Daniel Conant]]

| post1preceded = [[John Morrow Robb]]
| post1         = [[Ministry of Labour (Ontario)|Minister of Labour]]
| post1years    = 1934–1935
| post1note     =
| post1followed = [[Mitchell Hepburn]]
}}
{{s-end}}

== Archives ==
There are [https://aims.archives.gov.on.ca/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/DESCRIPTION_WEB/WEB_DESC_DET?SESSIONSEARCH&exp=sisn%20803 Arthur W. Roebuck fonds] at the [[Archives of Ontario]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Arthur W. Roebuck fonds, Archives of Ontario|url=http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARCH_DESCRIPTIVE/DESCRIPTION_DET_REP/SISN%20803?SESSIONSEARCH|access-date=April 8, 2019|archive-date=August 30, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830021213/http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARCH_DESCRIPTIVE/DESCRIPTION_DET_REP/SISN%20803?SESSIONSEARCH|url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Library and Archives Canada]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Arthur Wentworth Roebuck fonds, Library and Archives Canada|date = July 20, 2017|url=http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=103873&lang=eng}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Ontario MPP biography|id=arthur-wentworth-roebuck}}
*[http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARCH_DESCRIPTIVE/DESCRIPTION_DET_REP/SISN%20803?SESSIONSEARCH Arthur W. Roebuck fonds] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830021213/http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARCH_DESCRIPTIVE/DESCRIPTION_DET_REP/SISN%20803?SESSIONSEARCH |date=August 30, 2022 }}, Archives of Ontario
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=4232}}

{{Hepburn Ministry}}
{{Ontario Attorneys General}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roebuck, Arthur}}
[[Category:1878 births]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:Attorneys general of Ontario]]
[[Category:Canadian King's Counsel]]
[[Category:Canadian senators from Ontario]]
[[Category:Labour lawyers]]
[[Category:Lawyers in Ontario]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada senators]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario]]
[[Category:Ontario Liberal Party MPPs]]
[[Category:Politicians from Hamilton, Ontario]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Senate of Canada]]