Angus MacInnis (September 2, 1884 – March 3, 1964) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

politician and

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

arian. MacInnis, a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

ist who had served for five years as a

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

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 ...

, was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1930 election as an Independent Labour

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

. He joined the Ginger Group of socialist MPs led by J.S. Woodsworth. He helped form the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1932 and thereafter sat as a CCF MP. MacInnis retained his status as an MP through five subsequent elections until his retirement in 1957, but sat in three different ridings. From 1930 to 1935 he represented

Vancouver South Vancouver South (french: Vancouver-Sud) is a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1917 to 1997, and since 2004. It covers the southern portion of the city of Va ...

. From 1935 to 1953, he was elected three times in

Vancouver East Vancouver East (french: Vancouver-Est) is a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1935. It is currently represented by New Democratic Party MP Jenny Kwan. The ...

. He finished his political career as MP from

Vancouver Kingsway Vancouver Kingsway is a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1953 to 1988 and since 1997. It is located in Vancouver. Demographics This riding's population is ...

. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties and spoke against the discrimination against Japanese Canadians that was widespread in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

in the 1930s and 1940s, and was an early advocate of extending the right to vote to Japanese Canadians, a right that was not won until 1949. In 1943, he and his wife Grace MacInnis published ''Oriental Canadians—Outcasts or Citizens?'' which, while a call for humane treatment of Japanese-Canadians, acquiesced to the prevailing mood at the time that favoured "evacuating" Japanese Canadians from the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

coast of British Columbia for reasons of wartime security. When

F. R. Scott Francis Reginald Scott (1899–1985), commonly known as Frank Scott or F. R. Scott, was a lawyer, Canadian poet, intellectual, and constitutional scholar. He helped found the first Canadian social democratic party, the Co-operative Commonwe ...

stepped-down as the National Chairman, just before the CCF's biennial convention in Vancouver in July 1950, there was a rift between the farmer and labour wings. Percy Wright a Saskatchewan farmer and Member of Parliament, represented the farmer-wing, while MacInnis, represented the labour-wing. Wright defeated MacInnis in the election to be the CCF's National Chairman.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macinnis, Angus 1884 births 1964 deaths Canadian trade unionists Canadian socialists Labour MPs in Canada Co-operative Commonwealth Federation MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia

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