Clarence Gillis

Clarence Gillis, MP was a Canadian social democratic politician and trade unionist from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. He was born on Nova Scotias mainland, but grewup in Cape Breton. He worked in the islands underground coal mines operated by the British Empire Steel and Coal Company . He also served as a member of the infantry in the Canadian Corps in Flanders during the First World War. After the war he returned to the coal mines and became an official with the mines United Mine Workers of America union. In 1938, he helped bring UMW Localinto the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation , becoming the first labour local to affiliate with the party. In 1940, he became the first CCF member elected to the Canadian House of Commons, east of Manitoba. While serving in the House, he was known as its leading voice championing labour issues. He was also a main voice for social rights during his 17years in Parliament. His most notable achievement was securing the funding that allowed the

He was born on the Nova Scotia mainland, in the town of Londonderry, in 1895. His father, J.H. Gillis, moved the family to the Industrial Cape Breton area in 1904. J.H. Gillis worked in the coal mines and was an associate of union leader J.B. McLachlan. Clarie, as Clarence Gillis was known, started working in the regions coal mines in 1913. The next year, he joined the Canadian Corps and rose from private to acting lieutenant. He suffered a head wound from shrapnel in Flanders. He would recover enough to go back to the mines after the war.

Source: Wikipedia