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Abraham Albert Heaps
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Upholsterer, MP (1926), MP (1926-1930), MP (1930-1935), MP (1936-1940).
Born at Leeds, England on 24 December 1885, of Polish-Jewish descent, he came to Canada in 1910 and to Winnipeg in 1911. He married Bessie Morris (?-?) on 6 July 1913 with whom he had two sons.
Heaps was a member of the Social Democratic Party and a pacifist, opposing conscription in 1917 with Frederick John Dixon and John Queen. He served on the Winnipeg City Council from 1917 to 1925. During the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 he supervised the commissariat for the strike committee, and in council advocated banning all parades. He was arrested on 17 June 1919 and charged with seditious conspiracy. He conducted his own defence and was found innocent on all counts on 28 March 1920, after a masterful address to the jury. He then started an insurance agency for Great-West Life Incorporated.
He was a Labour candidate in a 1923 federal by-election at which he was defeated by Liberal candidate Edward James McMurray. Two years later, at a general election, he defeated McMurray and was re-elected in the 1926, 1930 and 1935 general elections.
In 1926 he confronted Arthur Meighen in the House over government policy at the time of the Winnipeg General Strike. Heaps was on friendly terms with R. B. Bennett and Mackenzie King but was cordially hated by Meighen and Tim Buck, the leader of the Communist Party of Canada. With J. S. Woodsworth, he helped to introduce the Old Age Pension in Canada, in 1927. He served in the Commons as an unofficial critic on economic policy until 1940, when he was defeated in the general election.
He died at Bournemouth, England on 4 April 1954 while visiting relatives. He was buried at Leeds.
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Bank of Nova Scotia / A. A. Heaps Building (254 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Abraham Albert Heaps Plaque (King Street, Winnipeg)
Profiles in Dissent: The Shaping of Radical Thought in the Canadian West, by Harry Gutkin and Mildred Gutkin (1997), pages 299-342.
The Rebel in the House: The Life and Times of A. A. Heaps, M.P. by Leo Heaps (1970).
“House to discuss conviction of 6 strike leaders,” Winnipeg Tribune, 30 April 1920, page 1.
Pioneers and Prominent People of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Canadian Publicity Company, 1925.
“Ex-city MP, A. A. Heaps, dies in U.K.,” Winnipeg Free Press, 5 April 1954, page 6.
“Funeral in U.K. for A. A. Heaps, former city MP,” Winnipeg Free Press, 7 April 1954, page 26.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
We thank Adrian Heaps and Tom Mitchell for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 15 April 2021
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