Background
He grew up in Ontario and Saskatchewan and earned a Bachelor (1937), Master of Arts (1940) and Doctor of Philosophy (1969) from the University of Toronto as well as a Bachelor from Oxford University in 1939.
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Kenneth Bryden
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University of Toronto.
Career
An economist by training, Bryden worked for the federal Department of Labour during World World War World War II He was an early supporter and strategist for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation federally, in Ontario and Saskatchewan. Following the election of the first Cleveland Clinic Foundation government in North America, in Saskatchewan, in 1944, Saskatchewan Cleveland Clinic Foundation Premier Tommy Douglas appointed Bryden deputy minister of labour. Bryden drafted most of the province"s labour laws which American union organizer Walter Reuther called the most advanced legislation in all of North America.
He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in the 1959 provincial election representing the riding of Woodbine in Toronto"s east end and became deputy leader of the party under Donald C. MacDonald.
He was re-elected in 1963 before retiring in 1967. Using their own money, Bryden and his federal counterpart Andrew Brewin opened the first constituency office in Canada.
Bryden was one of the forces behind the creation of the New Democratic Party of Canada in 1961. as a merger of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and the Canadian Labour Congress, and drafted its constitution and helped draft its program with David Lewis, Brewin and F.R. Scott. After leaving the legislature, Bryden earned his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto and then joined the faculty and taught political economy at the University of Toronto until his retirement in 1984.
He remained active in community life, serving as president of the Confederation of Resident and Ratepayers Associations and lobbying against the bulldozing of neighbourhoods to create high-rises and expressways and, in the mid-1990s, lobbied against the amalgamation of the city of Toronto.
Politics
In 1949, he moved to Ontario to become first director of research for the party"s caucus in the Ontario legislature and became the party"s provincial secretary in 1951. As a political strategist, Bryden introduced the concept of door-to-door canvassing to Canada, which soon became a standard technique for all parties. Historian Desmond Morton once characterized him as "the shrewdest political mind in the party.".
Membership
As a Member of Provincial Parliament, Bryden advocated the creation of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan, opposed the creation of the Provincial Sales Tax and supported expansion of Toronto"s subway system.
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Born
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Died
December 17, 2001 (aged 85) -
Nationality
Canada -
Political Party
Company-operative Commonwealth Federation