author
John Wesley Dafoe
1866–1944
A towering voice in Canadian journalism, he shaped public debate for more than four decades as the editor of the Manitoba Free Press, later the Winnipeg Free Press. He also brought the same political insight to books on figures such as Wilfrid Laurier and Clifford Sifton.
3 Audiobooks
Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics
by John Wesley Dafoe
Over the Canadian Battlefields Notes of a Little Journey in France, in March, 1919
by John Wesley Dafoe
Empire Partnership
by John Wesley Dafoe
About the author
Born in Combermere, Canada West, in 1866, John Wesley Dafoe built his career in newspapers and became one of Canada’s most influential editors. In 1901 he took charge of the Manitoba Free Press, and he remained its editor until his death in Winnipeg in 1944.
Dafoe was known not just as a newspaperman but as a liberal reformer and public thinker. Accounts from sources such as The Canadian Encyclopedia and Britannica describe him as a major force in Canadian public life, helping establish the paper’s reputation for political independence and public service.
He also wrote books, including studies of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and Clifford Sifton. For listeners coming to his work today, Dafoe stands out as a writer who understood both the politics of his era and the growing importance of the Canadian West.