Canada 1883

Synopsis

First meeting in Toronto in 1883, the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada (TLC) was the first long-standing labor central in Canada. TLC formed within the larger context of a developing national political economy—the recent confederation of the former British North American colonies into one nation in 1867, the rise of large-scale manufacturing enterprises, and the concomitant formation of a working class. The organization was an expression of the growing call for labor unity and political independence emanating from the turbulent trade union and Knights of Labor (KOL) agitation and struggles of the 1870s and 1880s.

Timeline

• 1863: Opening of the world's first subway, in London.
• 1869: Completion of the first U.S. transcontinental railway.
• 1873: Typewriter introduced.
• 1876: Four-stroke cycle gas engine introduced.
• 1878: Thomas Edison develops a means of cheaply producing and transmitting electric current, which he succeeds in subdividing...