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{{Short description|Canadian communist leader (1904–1964)}}
{{for|the American fashion designer|Leslie Morris (designer)}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Leslie Morris
| order               = [[General Secretary]] of the [[Communist Party of Canada]]
| term_start          = 1962
| term_end            = 1964
| predecessor         = [[Tim Buck]]
| successor           = [[William Kashtan]]
| order2               = [[General Secretary]] of the [[Communist Party of Ontario]]
| term_start2          = 1945
| term_end2            = 1948
| predecessor2         = Position established
| successor2           = [[A.A. MacLeod]]
| birth_name          = Leslie Tom Morris
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1904|10|10}}
| birth_place         = [[Somerset]], [[England]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1964|11|13|1904|10|10}}
| death_cause         = [[Cancer]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.socialisthistory.ca/Remember/Reminiscences/Boyd/B10.htm|title=A Noble Cause Betrayed ... but Hope Lives On|last=Boyd|first=John|website=socialisthistory.ca|access-date=August 3, 2022}}</ref>
| occupation          = Politician
| party               = [[Communist Party of Canada]]
| otherparty          = [[Labor-Progressive Party]] (1943–1959)<br/> [[Communist Party of Ontario]] <br/> [[Communist Party of Manitoba]]
}}

'''Leslie Tom Morris''' (October 10, 1904 – November 13, 1964) was a [[Wales|Welsh]]-[[Canadians|Canadian]] politician, journalist and longtime member of the [[Communist Party of Canada]] and, its front group, the [[Labor-Progressive Party]]. He was leader of the Ontario Labor-Progressive Party in the 1940s and [[general secretary]] of the Communist Party of Canada from 1962 until his death in 1964.<ref>{{cite book|author=Leslie Morris|title=Look on Canada, now ...: selected writings of Leslie Morris, 1923/1964|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HYBYAAAAMAAJ|year=1970|publisher=Progress Books|isbn=9780919396135}}</ref>

==Life and career==
Morris was born in [[Somerset, England]], to a [[Wales|Welsh]] [[working class|working-class]] family. He and his family immigrated to Canada in 1910. Morris returned to the UK in 1917 and lived in Wales and [[England]] while working in the steel, coal mining and railway industries. He returned to Canada in time to join the Communist Party of Canada at its founding convention held December 1921 in [[Guelph]], [[Ontario]].

He became a prominent figure in the party first as secretary of the [[Young Communist League of Canada]] from 1923 to 1924, and then as editor over the years of various Communist newspapers including ''The Worker'', ''Daily Clarion'', ''Daily Tribune'' and ''Canadian Tribune''.

Morris supported [[Tim Buck]] and the supporters of [[Joseph Stalin]] in the party during the factional struggles and purges of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

He was a candidate for the [[House of Commons of Canada]] on several occasions, but never elected:
* In the [[1940 Canadian federal election|1940 election]], he ran as a Communist in [[Winnipeg North]], coming in third place with 17% of the vote, which was larger than the number of votes separating the Conservative victor from the defeated [[Cooperative Commonwealth Federation]] incumbent, [[Abraham Albert Heaps]].
*In a 1954 [[by-election]], Morris was the Labor-Progressive candidate in the [[Toronto]]-area riding of York West, and came in fourth (and last) place with only 282 votes.
*In the [[1958 Canadian federal election|1958 election]], he ran in York South, placing fourth out of five candidates with 427 votes.
*In the [[1962 Canadian federal election|1962 election]], he ran for the Communist Party in the Toronto riding of Trinity winning 449 votes.
*He tried again in the [[1963 Canadian federal election|1963 election]] in the same [[electoral district (Canada)|riding]], and won 391 votes

Morris also campaigned unsuccessfully for provincial office. In the [[1932 Manitoba general election|Manitoba provincial election of 1932]], he ran in the city of [[Winnipeg]] as a "United Front Workers" candidate (the Communist Party being under legal proscription at the time). At the time, the provincial constituency of [[Winnipeg (provincial electoral district)|Winnipeg]] elected ten members by the [[single transferable ballot]] system. Morris finished eighth on the first count, and came within 309 votes of winning the tenth seat on the final count. Had he won, he would have been the first Communist elected to a provincial legislature in Canada. Litterick would be elected in 1936 setting that record.)

Morris was a popular stump speaker for the party and toured the country speaking to left wing and labour audiences. From 1954 until 1957, he was the national organizer of the Labor-Progressive Party (as the Communist Party had been known since 1943) and, in 1962, he succeeded Tim Buck as [[General Secretary]] of the Communist Party of Canada (as it was again known) and held the position until his death two years later.

==Electoral record==
{{Canadian election result/top|CA|1963|Trinity (electoral district)|Trinity|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|[[Paul Hellyer]]|10,595|53.87|+6.85}}
{{CANelec|CA|PC|John Wasylenko|5,171|26.29|+3.66}}
{{CANelec|CA|NDP|Thomas Paton|3,512|17.86|-0.43}}
{{CANelec|CA|Communist|Leslie Morris|391|1.99|-0.21}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|19,669}}
{{end}}

{{Canadian election result/top|CA|1962|Trinity (electoral district)|Trinity|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|[[Paul Hellyer]]|9,615|47.02|+3.13}}
{{CANelec|CA|PC|Stanley Frolick|6,124|29.95|-7.40}}
{{CANelec|CA|NDP|Thomas Paton|3,740|18.29|+3.67}}
{{CANelec|CA|Communist|Leslie Morris|449|2.20|-1.94}}
{{CANelec|CA|Independent|Peter D'Agostino|295|1.44|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|CA|Social Credit|David E. Hartman|227|1.11|&ndash;}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|20,450}}
{{end}}

{{Canadian election result/top|CA|1958|York South|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|PC|[[William George Beech]]|22,980|49.47|+9.44}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|[[Marvin Gelber]]|13,141|28.29|-1.16}}
{{CANelec|CA|CCF|Bill Sefton|9,643|20.76|-8.19}}
{{CANelec|CA|Labor-Progressive|Leslie Morris|427|0.92|&ndash;}}
{{CANelec|CA|Social Credit| Harvey Jamieson|258|0.56|-1.01}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|46,449}}
{{end}}			
{{Canadian election result/top|CA|September 8, 1954|York West|by=yes|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|PC|John B. Hamilton|12,228	|45.3|+3.8}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|Robert M. Campbell|9,768	|36.2|+1.4}}
{{CANelec|CA|CCF|Bruce William Evans|4,711|17.5|-4.8}}
{{CANelec|CA|Labor-Progressive|Leslie Tom Morris|282|1.0|-0.4}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|26,989}}
{{end}}			

{{Canadian election result/top|CA|1940|Winnipeg North|percent=yes|change=yes}}
{{CANelec|CA|Liberal|[[Charles Stephen Booth]]|13,015|40.9|+11.6}}
{{CANelec|CA|CCF|[[Abraham Albert Heaps]]|11,249|35.3|-6.8}}
{{CANelec|CA|Communist|Leslie Tom Morris|5,315|16.7|-8.7}}
{{CANelec|CA|National Government|Percy Ellor|2,255|7.1| }}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|31,834}}
{{end}}

{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|- style="background-color:#E9E9E9"
! colspan="4"| [[1932 Manitoba general election|1932 Manitoba General Election]]: [[Winnipeg (provincial electoral district)|Winnipeg]] <br> ''10 to be elected by [[Single Transferable Vote]]'' <br>
|- style="background-color:#DDDDFF"
! style="width: 50px"|Party
! style="width: 100px"|Candidate
! style="width: 50px"|First Count
! style="width: 50px"|Status
|-
|[[Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba|Conservative]]||[[William Sanford Evans]]||13,507||'''Elected'''
|-
|[[Independent Labour Party (Manitoba, 1920)|Independent Labour Party]]||[[John Queen]]||9,302||'''Elected'''
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal-Progressive]]||[[William James Major]]||5,940||'''Elected'''
|-
|[[Independent Labour Party (Manitoba, 1920)|Independent Labour Party]]||[[Seymour Farmer]]||5,053||'''Elected'''
|-
|[[Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba|Conservative]]||[[John Thomas Haig]]||4,432||'''Elected'''
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal]]||[[John Stewart McDiarmid]]||3,540||'''Elected''' 
|-
|[[Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba|Conservative]]||[[Huntly Ketchen]]||3,530||'''Elected'''
|-
|[[Communist Party of Manitoba|United Front]]||Leslie Morris||3,455||Eliminated on the 24th count
|-
|[[Independent Labour Party (Manitoba, 1920)|Independent Labour Party]]||[[Marcus Hyman]]||3,366||'''Elected'''
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal]]||[[Ralph Maybank]]||2,945||'''Elected'''
|-
|Independent Ukrainian||C. Andrusyshen||2,693||Eliminated on the 21st count
|-
|[[Independent Labour Party (Manitoba, 1920)|Independent Labour Party]]||[[William Ivens]]||2,262||'''Elected'''
|-
|[[Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba|Conservative]]||William V. Tobias||1,991||Eliminated on the 20th count
|-
|[[Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba|Conservative]]||R.W.B. Swail||1,951||Eliminated on the 22nd count
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal]]||[[Edward William Montgomery]]||1,614||Eliminated on the 19th count
|-
|Independent Labour||Jessie MacLennan||1,600||Eliminated on the 17th count
|-
|[[Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba|Conservative]]||[[James Alexander Barry]]||1,549||Eliminated on the 24th count
|-
|Independent||F.W. Russell||1,339||Eliminated on the 16th count
|-
|[[Communist Party of Manitoba|United Front]]||[[Jacob Penner]]||1,106||Eliminated on the 13th count
|-
|[[Independent Labour Party (Manitoba, 1920)|Independent Labour Party]]||V.B. Anderson||1,061||Eliminated on the 15th count
|-
|[[Independent Labour Party (Manitoba, 1920)|Independent Labour Party]]||[[Beatrice Brigden ]]||894||Eliminated on the 11th count
|-
|[[Socialist Party of Canada (Manitoba)|Socialist Party of Manitoba]]||[[George Armstrong (Manitoba politician)|George Armstrong]]||848||Eliminated on the 10th count
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal]]||H.P.A. Hermanson||688||Eliminated on the 14th count
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal]]||[[Duncan Cameron (Manitoba politician)|Duncan Cameron]]||597||Eliminated on the 8th count
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal]]||John Y. Reid||588||Eliminated on 9th count
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal]]||Clarence G. Keith||548||Eliminated on 7th count
|-
|[[Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba|Conservative]]||D.M. Elcheshen||314||Eliminated on 5th count
|-
|[[Liberal Party of Manitoba|Liberal]]||W.J. Fulton||182||Eliminated on 4th count
|-
|Independent||Thomas Gargan||82||Eliminated on 4th count
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Canadian Communist Leaders}}

{{Ontario Communist Leaders}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Leslie}}
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:1964 deaths]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Communist Party of Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Welsh descent]]
[[Category:Welsh communists]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Communist Party of Canada (Ontario)]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Canada candidates in the 1940 Canadian federal election]]
[[Category:Labor-Progressive Party candidates in the 1958 Canadian federal election]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Canada candidates in the 1962 Canadian federal election]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Canada candidates in the 1963 Canadian federal election]]
[[Category:British emigrants to Canada]]
[[Category:Ontario candidates for Member of Parliament]]
[[Category:Manitoba candidates for Member of Parliament]]