Fonds consists of papers related to Abraham Heaps' involvement in labour causes and his interest in social welfare legislation, including correspondence, 1926-1954, clippings, n.d., 1913-1941, election material, notes on the Winnipeg General Strike, 1919, and several items of correspondence with W.L.M. King and R.B. Bennett. The fonds contains photographs of a chair used by Sir Wilfrid Laurier presented to Mackenzie King by Heaps, [ca. 1928]. The fonds also contains an atlas: Proceedings of the special committee appointed to enquire into the development and improvement of the St. Lawrence River [cartographic material]. Ottawa : F.A. Acland, 1928. At head of title: The Senate of Canada. On maps: Department of Railways & Canals, Ottawa, Ont. June 7th, 1928. Contents: 1. St. Lawrence River, International Rapids section -- 2. St. Lawrence River, Thousand Islands section -- 3. Lake Erie-Lake Ontario -- 4. Detroit River -- 5. Lake St. Clair -- 6. St. Clair River -- 7. Lake Huron -- 8. St. Marys River -- 9. Lake Superior.
Heaps, Abraham, 1885-1954 : Abraham Albert Heaps, born in 1885 at Leeds, England, immigrated to Canada in 1911 and settled in north-end Winnipeg. He became a manufacturer's agent and upholsterer at Winnipeg. He was a member of Winnipeg City Council from 1917 to 1925, and a member of the Trade Union Council. Heaps was one of the leaders of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike for which he was jailed and later acquitted of sedition charges.
Heaps was one of the original founders of the C.C.F. He was a Member of the House of Commons, representing Winnipeg North, 1925-1940. With two other Jewish MPs, Sam Factor of Toronto and Sam Jacobs of Montreal, he fought against Jewish immigration quotas and anti-semitism. After his defeat in 1940, he retired to private life in Montreal. In 1954, on a trip to England, he died suddenly and was buried in Leeds. His son, Leo, wrote a biography, The Rebel in the House: The Life and Times of A.A. Heaps MP.
