{{Short description|Canadian politician (1896–1978)}} {{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} {{about||the former US Representative from New York|Charles D. Millard|the director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation|Charles E. F. Millard}} {{Infobox Politician | name = Charlie Millard | image = | image_size = | caption = | office = Ontario MPP | constituency1 = York West | term_start1 = 1948 | term_end1 = 1951 | predecessor1 = John Pearman Allan | successor1 = Elmer Brandon | constituency2 = York West | term_start2 = 1943 | term_end2 = 1945 | predecessor2 = William Gardhouse | successor2 = John Pearman Allan | birth_date = {{birth date|1896|8|25}} | birth_place = St. Thomas, Ontario | death_date = {{Death date and age|1978|11|24|1896|8|25}} | death_place = Toronto, Ontario | party = CCF | profession = Trade unionist | spouse = | children = }} '''Charles Hibbert (Charlie) Millard''' (August 25, 1896 – November 24, 1978) was a Canadian trade union activist and politician.
==Early life== He was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, the son of a railroad repairman, and first trained as a carpenter.<ref>{{cite web|author=Nick Goupinets |url=http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/findaids/fonds/m/millard.htm |title=Charles Hibbert Millard collection |publisher=Library.mcmaster.ca |date= |accessdate=2008-12-05}}</ref> Millard became an autoworker after his small business failed as a result of the Great Depression.<ref name=Wilson>Wilson, Jeffrey L. (1989). ''[http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/18/ Charles H. Millard: Architect of industrial unionism in Canada]'' (MA thesis) Wilfrid Laurier University</ref>
==Union activism== Employed by General Motors in Oshawa, Ontario, Millard was involved in the organizing auto workers in the 1930s and was elected the first president of the new United Auto Workers local 222 in Oshawa leading his union out on strike in 1937 after GM refused to recognize the union. The 18-day-long strike was successful and Millard's local obtained the first contract in Canada between an automobile manufacturer and its workers.<ref name=Wilson /> Millard was elected the first Canadian director of the United Auto Workers, was a full-time organizer for the CIO and was also elected to the provincial executive of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in Ontario. Millard was active in championing the CCF within the union against the Communist Party of Canada, and was viewed as some as a divisive force.<ref name=Wilson />
In 1939, he was defeated in his bid for re-election as the UAW's Canadian director by George Burt who was the candidate of the "Unity Caucus" composed of Communists, left-wing CCFers and other militants who viewed Millard as right-wing.
CIO president John L. Lewis appointed Millard secretary of the CIO in Canada and then as the first head of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee in Canada (SWOC) became the United Steel Workers of America<ref>{{cite web|url=http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/labourstudies/onlinelearningcentre/uswacda/uswahistory/1930.htm |title=United Steelworkers in Canada Historical Timeline |publisher=Socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca |accessdate=2008-12-05 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090129152204/http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/labourstudies/onlinelearningcentre/uswacda/uswahistory/1930.htm |archivedate=January 29, 2009 }}</ref> in 1942 with Millard as Canadian director<ref name="mcmaster1940">{{cite web|url=http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/labourstudies/onlinelearningcentre/uswacda/uswahistory/1940.htm |title=United Steelworkers in Canada Historical Timeline |publisher=Socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca |accessdate=2008-12-05 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090130075230/http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/labourstudies/onlinelearningcentre/uswacda/uswahistory/1940.htm |archivedate=January 30, 2009 }}</ref> and was active in purging Communists from the SWOC.<ref name="geocities1">{{cite web|url=http://ca.geocities.com/local343/343history.html |title=Local 343 United Steelworkers of America - History Page |publisher=Ca.geocities.com |date= |accessdate=2008-12-05|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090724155818/http://ca.geocities.com/local343/343history.html|archivedate=2009-07-24}}</ref> Millard was also an executive member of the Canadian Congress of Labour and played a role in establishing the United Packinghouse Workers in Canada.
Millard stepped down as Canadian director in 1947<ref name="mcmaster1940"/> but resumed the post in the 1950s.
==World War II== Millard was initially critical of World War II - in December 1939 he was arrested under the Defence of Canada Regulations after telling workers in Timmins that "[we] should have democracy here in Canada before we go to Europe to defend it."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.socialisthistory.ca/Docs/History/Pariahs_to_Patriots.htm |title=From Pariahs to Patriots: Canadian Communists and the Second World War |publisher=Socialist History Project |date= |accessdate=2008-12-05}}</ref> As a result, Millard was jailed and the Canadian offices of the CIO being raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.socialisthistory.ca/Docs/History/Left-in-WW2.htm |title=The Left in Canada in World War II |publisher=Socialist History Project |date= |accessdate=2008-12-05}}</ref>
==Creation of the Canadian Labour Congress== In the mid-1950s, Millard played a role in negotiating the merger of the Canadian Congress of Labour (CCL) with the rival Trades and Labour Congress of Canada becoming vice-president of the new body, the Canadian Labour Congress, at its founding in 1956. In the late 1950s he was also director of organizing for the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Brussels, Belgium.<ref name=canenc>{{cite encyclopedia|author=Laurel Sefton Macdowell |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charles-hibbert-millard|title=Charles Hibbert Millard|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|accessdate=August 22, 2019}}</ref>
==Political career== He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a CCF Member of Provincial Parliament for the Toronto area riding of York West from 1943 to 1945 and again from 1948 to 1951<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_all_detail.do?locale=en&ID=1590 |title=Legislative Assembly of Ontario | Members (MPPs) | Past & Present MPPs | MPP Charles Hibbert Millard |publisher=Ontla.on.ca |date= |accessdate=2008-12-05 |archive-date=2007-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930201612/http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/members/members_all_detail.do?locale=en&ID=1590 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and was also the party's vice president through much of the 1940s.<ref>{{cite web|author=Ross Lambertson |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/47/03lamber.html |title=Ross Lambertson| "The Dresden Story": Racism, Human Rights, and the Jewish Labour Committee of Canada| Labour/Le Travail, 47| The History Cooperative |publisher=Historycooperative.org |date= 27 June 2002|accessdate=2008-12-05}}</ref> In the early 1960s, he supported the creation of the New Democratic Party as a party with formal affiliation with the Canadian Labour Congress. He was a candidate for the federal CCF in the 1953 federal election and for the federal NDP in the 1962 and 1963 federal elections but failed in his bid to become a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/HFER/hfer.asp?Language=E&Search=Cres&canName=millard&canParty=0&ridProvince=0&ridName=&submit1=Search |title=History of Federal Ridings since 1867 |publisher=Parl.gc.ca |date= |accessdate=2008-12-05}}</ref>
==Religious views== A Christian socialist, Millard was involved with the United Church of Canada and the Religious Labor Foundation.<ref name="geocities1"/>
==Death== He died in Toronto in 1978.<ref name=canenc/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Ontario MPP biography|id=charles-hibbert-millard}}
{{s-start}} {{succession box|title=Canadian Director of the United Auto Workers |before=''none'' |after=George Burt
| years=1937-1939}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millard, Charles}} Category:Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPPs Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Category:Trade unionists from Ontario Category:United Auto Workers people Category:United Steelworkers people Category:1896 births Category:1978 deaths Category:Canadian Christian socialists Category:People from St. Thomas, Ontario Category:Members of the United Church of Canada Category:Canadian Congress of Labour people Category:People detained under Defence of Canada Regulations Category:20th-century Canadian trade unionists