Angus MacInnis

Angus MacInnis (September 2, 1884 – March 3, 1964) was a Canadian socialist politician and parliamentarian.

Angus MacInnis
Member of Parliament
In office 1953–1957
Preceded by	Riding established
Succeeded by	Alexander Macdonald
Constituency	Vancouver-Kingsway
In office 1935–1953
Preceded by	Riding established
Succeeded by	Harold Edward Winch
Constituency	Vancouver East
In office 1930–1935
Preceded by	Leon Johnson Ladner
Succeeded by	Howard Charles Green
Constituency	Vancouver South
Personal details
Born	(1884-09-02)September 2, 1884 Glen William, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Died	March 3, 1964(1964-03-03) (aged 79) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Political party	Independent Labour Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Spouse	Grace MacInnis
Profession	Trade unionist

MacInnis, a trade unionist who had first served for five years as a Vancouver Alderman, was then elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1930 election as an Independent Labour Member of Parliament. He joined the Ginger Group of socialist MPs led by J.S. Woodsworth. He helped form the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1932 and thereafter sat as a CCF MP.

MacInnis retained his status as an MP through five subsequent elections until his retirement in 1957, but sat in three different ridings. From 1930 to 1935 he represented Vancouver South. From 1935 to 1953, he was elected three times in Vancouver East. He finished his political career as MP from Vancouver Kingsway. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties and spoke against the discrimination against Japanese Canadians that was widespread in British Columbia in the 1930s and 1940s, and was an early advocate of extending the right to vote to Japanese Canadians, a right that was not won until 1949.

In 1943, he and his wife Grace MacInnis published Oriental Canadians—Outcasts or Citizens? which, while a call for humane treatment of Japanese-Canadians, acquiesced to the prevailing mood at the time that favoured "evacuating" Japanese Canadians from the Pacific coast of British Columbia for reasons of wartime security.^[1]

When F. R. Scott stepped-down as the National Chairman, just before the CCF's biennial convention in Vancouver in July 1950, there was a rift between the farmer and labour wings.^[2] Percy Wright a Saskatchewan farmer and Member of Parliament, represented the farmer-wing, while MacInnis, represented the labour-wing.^[2] Wright defeated MacInnis in the election to be the CCF's National Chairman.^[2]