Alphonse Verville

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Alphonse Verville (October 28, 1864 - June 20, 1921) was a Canadian politician and trade unionist.

Born and raised in the Côte-St-Paul neighbourhood of Montreal, Verville was a plumber by trade. At the age of 18 he moved to Chicago and joined the International Plumbers' Union. He returned to Montreal in 1893 and worked to organize plumbers. He became leader of the plumbers' union in Montreal as well as president of Montreal's Trades and Labour Council before serving as president of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada from 1904 to 1910.

Politically, Verville was an early advocate of the trade union movement running their own candidates for political office. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Labour candidate in a 1906 by-election in Maisonneuve, defeating a Liberal opponent, and was re-elected as a Labour MP in the 1908 and 1911 federal elections. Upon entering parliament he became a supporter of the Liberals and was often billed as a Liberal-Labour MP. In his re-election contests he was supported by the Liberals who ran no candidate of their own against him. In the 1917 federal election caused by the Conscription Crisis of 1917, Verville ran and was elected as a Laurier Liberal in the riding of St-Denis. He remained in the Commons until his death in 1921.

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Parliament of Canada
Preceded by
Raymond Préfontaine
Member of Parliament for Maisonneuve
1906–1917
Succeeded by
Rodolphe Lemieux
Preceded by
Electoral district was created in 1914.
Member of Parliament for St. Denis
1917–1921
Succeeded by
Joseph-Arthur Denis
In other languages