Seymour James Farmer (June 20, 1878 – January 16, 1951) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served as Winnipeg MLA from 1922 to 1949. During this time he also served as mayor of Winnipeg 1923-1924 and later as city councillor in the late 1920s and in the 1930s. He was the leader of the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1935 to 1947. He served as a cabinet minister in Manitoba's World War I coalition government. Farmer was born in Cardiff, Wales, the son of Seymour Farmer and Bessie Alexander Sander, and was educated there. He moved to Canada in 1900 and worked as a railway clerk. In 1910, he was Fred Dixon's campaign manager in the latter's unsuccessful bid for election to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. lHe became an accountant for the International Grain Company in 1913 and retained that position until 1927. Farmer married Lydia Gwendoline Ashton. Along with Dixon, Farmer opposed conscription during World War I. During the Conscription Crisis of 1917, he was nominated by the Anti-Conscription League to contest the federal riding of Winnipeg Centre in the 1917 federal election. He withdrew from the contest so as not to split the anti-conscriptionist vote between a Laurier Liberal and himself. Farmer supported the Winnipeg General Strike. After the strike's end, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 1919 and 1920. In December 1920, he was one of the founding members of Manitoba's Independent Labour Party. He considered running for the federal riding of Winnipeg Centre in the 1921 election, but withdrew in favour of J.S. Woodsworth. Farmer was elected the 30th mayor of Winnipeg in 1922 and 1923. He could not command majority support from the city's councillors though. He was defeated by Ralph Webb in 1924. He later served as a councillor in 1928 and 1929, and again in the 1930s. Farmer was also elected to the provincial legislature for Winnipeg in the 1922 election, along with fellow ILP members Fred Dixon, John Queen and William Ivens. Winnipeg at the time was a 10-seat district electing MLAs through STV. He was re-elected in the 1927 and 1932 elections, and replaced Queen as party leader in 1935. At the time the Independent Labour Party and the CCF were both in existence and in a partial merger. Farmer's early years as party leader were marked by conflict between the ILP and the newly formed Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.