Alphonse Verville | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Alphonse Verville

Alphonse Verville, plumber, labourist, socialist, MP, president of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada (b at Côte-St-Paul [Montréal], Canada E 28 Oct 1864; d at Montréal 20 June 1930).

Verville, Alphonse

Alphonse Verville, plumber, labourist, socialist, MP, president of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada (b at Côte-St-Paul [Montréal], Canada E 28 Oct 1864; d at Montréal 20 June 1930). Verville left Montréal at age 18 to work in Chicago, where he became a member of the International Plumbers' Union. Returning to Montréal in 1893, he actively promoted international unionism there. He then became president of the Plumbers' Union and of the Montreal Trades and Labour Council, and was president of the TLC (1904-10). A supporter of the political labour movement, Verville was elected federal MP for Maisonneuve under the Parti ouvrier banner in 1906. He was re-elected in subsequent elections as Liberal-Labour and retired in 1921.