Lincoln Alexander became Canada’s first Black MP in 1968

Lincoln Alexander won the Hamilton West riding in the federal election of June 25, 1968, becoming the first Black person elected to the House of Commons. He was a Progressive Conservative, and he had lost the same race three years earlier.

Alexander was born in Toronto on Jan. 21, 1922, to parents who had immigrated from the West Indies, according to tributes read in the Senate after his death in 2012 and a biography published by BlackPast. His mother worked as a maid and his father was a trained carpenter, BlackPast reported. Alexander himself worked as a railway porter, one of the few jobs open to Black men at the time.

He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1942 to 1945 as a wireless operator, then earned a BA from McMaster University in 1949 and a law degree from Osgoode Hall in 1953. BlackPast reported that many established law firms turned him away when he looked for work. In 1954 he joined what the biography describes as Canada’s first interracial law firm, in Hamilton.

He first ran for Parliament in 1965 and lost, according to Senate tributes by Sen. Marjory LeBreton. Three years later he won. The Senate record describes him as the first Black member of the House of Commons.

His maiden speech in the Commons on Sept. 20, 1968, set out how he intended to hold the seat. “I am not the spokesman for the Negro; that honour has not been given to me,” Alexander said, according to a biography of him that quotes the speech. He represented Hamilton West as a member for the whole riding, and BlackPast notes that his parliamentary work centred on subjects such as immigration reform, urban renewal and the Official Languages Bill rather than on civil rights alone.

On June 4, 1979, Prime Minister Joe Clark named him Minister of Labour, making him the first Black cabinet minister in Canadian history. The Clark government fell in early 1980, and Alexander held the post until March 2 of that year. He resigned his seat in May 1980 to chair the Ontario Workers’ Compensation Board.

On Sept. 20, 1985, he was sworn in as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the first Black person to serve in a viceregal role in Canada. He held the office until Dec. 10, 1991. From 1991 to 2007 he served as chancellor of the University of Guelph. In tributes in the Senate after his death, Sen. Leo Housakos called him “a proud symbol of what makes Canada great.”

Alexander died in Hamilton on Oct. 19, 2012, at 90. Ontario proclaimed Jan. 21, his birthday, as Lincoln Alexander Day in December 2013. Parliament passed federal legislation in December 2014, and the day was observed nationally for the first time in 2015.

The 1968 result showed that a Hamilton riding would send a Black lawyer and former railway porter to Ottawa. Alexander’s own words in his maiden speech suggest he wanted to be judged as a member for all of his constituents.

File photo: Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Photo by Aleksandr Galenko via Unsplash. It does not show Alexander.

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Sources: Debates of the Senate, Oct. 23, 2012 (tributes by Sen. Marjory LeBreton and Sen. Leo Housakos); BlackPast, “Lincoln MacCauley Alexander (1922-2012)”; Wikipedia and the Ottawa-based profile at obvc.ca for dates and the Sept. 20, 1968 maiden speech.