Abraham Albert Heaps (December 24, 1885 – April 4, 1954), known as A. A. Heaps, was a Canadian politician and
labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
leader. A strong labourite, he served as MP for Winnipeg North from 1925 to 1940.
Born in
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, Heaps emigrated to Canada in 1911 and worked in
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
as an upholsterer. He was one of the leaders of the Winnipeg general strike of 1919 and was a Labour
alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...
on the
Winnipeg City Council
The Winnipeg City Council (french: Conseil municipal de Winnipeg) is the governing body of the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Council is seated in the Council Building of Winnipeg City Hall.House of Commons of Canada as a
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
candidate in 1923 in the riding of
Winnipeg North
Winnipeg North (french: Winnipeg-Nord) is a federal electoral district in Canada that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1917. It covers the northern portion of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Geography
The riding includes the ne ...
but was defeated.
He was elected in the 1925 election and joined J. S. Woodsworth as the only Labour MPs in Parliament. The
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
government of
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A L ...
was elected with a minority government. Heaps and Woodsworth agreed to support the Liberals in exchange for the government creating Canada's first
old age pension
A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
in Parliament, Heaps pushed the government to allow Jewish refugees from the Nazis into Canada, but with little success.Troper and Abella, None Is Too Many
He was defeated in the 1940 election by Charles Stephen Booth from the Liberal Party due to a strong candidacy in Winnipeg North by the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
's candidate.
Heaps died in England while visiting family and was buried in his birthplace of Leeds.
His son, Leo Heaps, wrote a 1984 biography about him called ''The Rebel in the House: The Life and Times of A.A. Heaps MP'' and was an unsuccessful New Democratic Party candidate in the 1979 federal election for the riding of
Eglinton—Lawrence
Eglinton—Lawrence is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1979.
It covers a portion of Toronto northwest of downtown. It stretches from Yonge Street in the east ...
. His grandson,
Adrian Heaps
Adrian A. Heaps (born ) is a former politician in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was the member of Toronto City Council for Scarborough Southwest Ward 35 from 2006 to 2010.
Background
Heaps is the grandson of Abraham Albert Heaps, a leader of the ...
The Canadian Encyclopedia
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage.
Available f ...