Rollo was secretary of the Hamilton Trades and Labour Council from 1906 to 1919.[6] In 1919, he also became editor of the Labor News, a Hamilton-based union paper.[7]
Rollo was involved in politics at all levels. In 1916, he was appointed as a member of Ontario's Organization of Resources Committee which was established to improve Canada's war effort in the Province.[8] He had also been a member of the Board of Education in Hamilton for several years.[5][9]
in the Ontario 1919 general election, which he won. In his campaign, signs were posted that read: "Your Vote for Walter Rollo is a nail in the coffin of the profiteer."[14]
He and Morrison Mann MacBride were instrumental in negotiating a coalition government between the Independent Labour Party and the United Farmers of Ontario under E.C. Drury,[15] which lasted until 1923. As a result of those negotiations, the ILP had the right to nominate two of its members to the new government: Rollo became the Province's first Minister of Labour—a position that had been created immediately before the election by the previous Conservative government of William Hearst[16]—and Harry Mills became the first Minister of Mines.[17][18] This caused a confrontation within the ILP, as MacBride had sought to be nominated to the Labour position.[19][20]
During his time as Minister, Rollo brought in several enhancements to Ontario's labour laws:[21]
the Minimum Wage Act, which set minimum wages for female employees,[22]
the Wages Act was amended to provide that 70% of any wages due to a worker was exempt from seizure,[23]
the One Day's Rest in Seven Act, which provided (with certain exceptions) that employees were entitled to 24 consecutive hours of rest every seven days,[24]
After his defeat in the 1923 general election, Rollo was appointed as an adolescent school inspector for the City of Hamilton,[27] and he was still working as a school attendance officer there in 1938,[28] and as a part-time school assessment adviser in 1950.[26] He died in 1957.[29]
Roger Hall; William Westfall; Laurel Sefton MacDowell, eds. (1996). "The Decline of Labourism". Patterns of the Past: Interpreting Ontario's History. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN1-55002034-X.
