Alexander Parent

Alexander A. Parent was a Canadian politician who was Liberal-Labour MPP for Essex North from 1945 to 1948.[1]

Parent was president of United Auto Workers Local 195 in Windsor, Ontario in the 1940s,[2] and a supporter of the Communist Party of Canada, which at the time was known as the Labor-Progressive Party.[3] In the 1945 Ontario general election, Parent was nominated by the UAW-CIO as one of three Labour candidates in the election. Parent ran in Essex North, George Burt, the UAW's Canadian director, ran in Windsor-Walkerville and Windsor mayor Arthur Reaume ran in Windsor—Sandwich. All three were jointly nominated by the Communist Labor-Progressive Party and the Ontario Liberal Party and ran as Liberal-Labour candidates[4] and targeted ridings held by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.[5][3]

Parent was elected, and initially caucused with the Liberal Party but quit the Liberal caucus in January 1946, denouncing the Liberals as "reactionary", in order to sit as a "straight Labor representative", caucusing with Labor-Progressive MPPs J.B. Salsberg and A. A. MacLeod.[6][7]

He remained president of Local 195 until March 1946 when he was defeated in his bid for re-election to the union office by Earl Watson by 2,200 votes to 1,600 votes.[8]

Parent did not run in the 1948 Ontario general election, and his riding was re-taken by the CCF.[9][10]

He died on December 25, 1961, at the age of 53.[11]