Dan Heap

Daniel James Macdonnell "Dan" (or "Don") Heap (born September 24, 1925) is a former Canadian politician with the New Democratic Party, a political activist and an Anglican priest. He represented the Toronto, Ontario, Canada riding of Spadina (after 1988 Trinity—Spadina) from 1981 until 1993. As an activist he has been involved in the peace movement, community issues around housing, homelessness, poverty and refugee rights among other social justice issues.

Early life

From a middle-class Winnipeg family, Heap attended the elite Upper Canada College on a scholarship, and then Queen's University and University of Chicago. He became an Anglican, studied divinity at McGill University and turned to socialism as a member of the Society of the Catholic Commonwealth,^[1] the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Student Christian Movement.^[2]

While at McGill he met Alice Boomhour, a pacifist, activist in the SCM and CCF, and daughter of a United Church minister. They married in 1950.^[3] That same year, he was ordained a priest within the Anglican Church of Canada.^[2]

After working as a parish priest for only a few years, Heap's longest-held job (18 years) was as a labourer (pressman) in a cardboard box factory in Toronto, where he became involved in the paperworkers union (now the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada) and attempted to “bring socialism to the Canadian worker.” The Heaps were renowned for their help in the community.^[2]

Politics

Heap entered politics to continue to oppose poverty, war and homelessness, and ran as the New Democratic Party's candidate in Spadina in the 1968 federal election placing second. He also ran in the 1971 provincial election against Allan Grossman in the riding of St. Andrew—St. Patrick. He lost that election by 1137 votes.^[4] His first success in politics came when he was elected in the 1972 municipal election as the junior Alderman for Ward 6.^[5] When the Liberal Member of Parliament for Spadina, Peter Stollery, was appointed to the Senate in 1981, Heap decided to run in the subsequent by-election. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had recommended Stollery for appointment to the Senate in order to open the "safe Liberal riding" for his aide Jim Coutts. Heap defeated Coutts in the by-election, however, and was re-elected in the 1984 and 1988 elections. He retired at the 1993 federal election.

Heap was an outspoken MP, serving as NDP critic on immigration, and a prominent spokesperson for social justice issues both in Canada and abroad. He was very concerned with issues such as refugees, the situations in Central America, East Timor, and South Africa. Heap hired a young Olivia Chow as his constituency office assistant.

Later life

Despite retiring from politics, Heap remained involved as an activist, strongly backing the anti-war movement, and supporting NDP candidates in the region. He also remained involved at the downtown Church of the Holy Trinity and social justice issues within the Anglican Church of Canada. In retirement, he prefers to go by the name "Don Heap", which he used before entering electoral politics in 1968. In the late 1980s, he and his wife Alice sold their family home in Toronto's Kensington Market area at a fraction of the market price to a community organisation which provides housing for refugees.^[2] The house had been a nexus for meetings and organizing among student activists around the anti-war, anti-apartheid and social housing movements from the 1960s to the 1980s with as many as a dozen young people staying with the Heap family at one time.^[3]

In his late seventies and early eighties he remained involved in various issues such as refugee rights. Heap co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee to campaign on the issue of homelessness.^[2][6]

Heap suffered a heart attack in 2005 and was also diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 2006. In 2011, he and his wife faced eviction from their retirement home as they awaited admission to a long-term care facility, for which they had been on a waiting list for five years. In October 2011, Heap was admitted to the Kensington Gardens facility and his wife Alice got a spot there later that month.^[2] Alice Heap, his wife of 61 years, died due to complications from pneumonia on March 24, 2012 at the age of 86.^[3][7]

References

External links

• Dan Heap – Parliament of Canada biography