M. J. Coldwell

Major James William Coldwell was born in Devon, England, and emigrated to Alberta in 1910, working as a rural school principal in Saskatchewan and serving as president of the Canadian Teachers' Federation. In 1932, alongside J.S. Woodsworth and Tommy Douglas, he co-founded the democratic socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF).

Succeeding Woodsworth as national CCF leader in 1942, Coldwell led the party for eighteen years. In 1945, he was a member of the official Canadian delegation that drafted the United Nations Charter in San Francisco. His parliamentary leadership pressured federal Liberal governments to enact universal family allowances, unemployment insurance, and federal old-age pensions.