Al Mackling

Alvin Al Mackling is a longtime Canadian Democratic Socialist and a retired lawyer. He was an alderman in the former city of St. James from 1961 to 1969 and was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1969 to 1973 and from 1981 to 1988. He was a cabinet minister in the New Democratic Party governments of Edward Schreyer and Howard Pawley.

The son of John Mackling, he was born in 1927 and educated in St. James. In 1944 he left high school and was employed with Saskatchewan Pool Elevators for five years. In the early 1940s he was smitten by the social gospel of J. S. Woodsworth and Stanley Knowles. He became an active member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Young Peoples Movement, becoming its President. In 1949 he went back to school graduating from United College in 1953. He worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway as a yardman for a year, then entered the Manitoba Law School in 1954, graduating in 1958. During his university years he was actively involved in University Mock Parliament as a member of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation .

Source: Wikipedia