Tuesday 7 January 2025
Lincoln MacCauley Alexander – Black History
by Dave Tulloch
Canada had a population of 21.4 million people in 1970. This included an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 Black residents. During the 1970s the Statistics Canada Census report did not have a Black population demographic category. However, by grouping the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan African immigrants categories reported by Statistics Canada, one could get a reasonable estimate of Canada’s Black population. The Ottawa-Gatineau region had a population of just over 581,000 with its black residents count so tiny that it did not register on census data.
The 1970s was also when Canadian residents received their television signals via. a “Rabbit Ears” antenna attached to the television, enabling them to watch broadcasts of parliamentary proceedings. Frequently, they would see a tall Black MP take his stand to state his case. He was the sole Black person in the House of Commons. He conducted his business with confidence, determination, and effectiveness.
Lincoln MacCauley Alexander was Canada’s first Black Member of Parliament. Elected to office on June 25, 1968, to represent the Hamilton West riding as a member of Robert Standfield’s Provincial Conservative (PC) Party. Alexander served in the House of Commons for 12 years, leaving Office on September 7, 1980. He was a leading figure in the fight for racial equity in Canada using his provincial, federal, public, and private roles as platforms to advocate for the equal treatment of Black Canadians.
Alexander was Born on January 21, 1922, in a row house on Draper Street near Front Street and Spadina Avenue in Toronto. He was the eldest son of Mae Rose (née Royale), who emigrated from Jamaica, and Lincoln MacCauley Alexander, Sr., a carpenter by trade who emigrated from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Alexander Sr. worked as a porter on the Canadian Pacific Railway. Alexander Jr. was the only Black student in his kindergarten class at the Earl Grey Public School, and as he stated, “Blacks at that time made up a sliver-thin portion of the city’s population, and racial prejudice abounded.” However, he learned “to always walk tall and with a certain bearing, so people knew I meant business.” During his teen, his mother moved to Harlem a Black community in New York City. Lincoln joined her later and attended DeWitt Clinton High School in New York.
In 1939 Alexander returned to Toronto after the war began. He was too young to enlist in the Canadian Forces, but he got a job that supported the war effort, working as a machinist in an anti-aircraft gun production factory in Hamilton. However, he later became a wireless operator in the Royal Canadian Air Force and earned the rank of Corporal.
After the war ended, Alexander resumed his academic studies. He enrolled in Hamilton’s Central Collegiate and was subsequently admitted to McMaster University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949. He applied for a sales job at Stelco, but despite stellar references, the company refused to offer him that role because it did not want a Black man in its sales force. Alexander then enrolled at Osgoode Hall Law School and even within the academic environment, he continued to encounter incidences of racism as before. He graduated in 1953, earning his Law Degree and once again encountered employment obstacles due to his race. He then confronted this obstacle by partnering with another lawyer to establish the first interracial law partnership in Canada.
In 1965 Lincoln Alexander lost his first bid for a seat in Parliament. However, three years later he ran again and won the seat to represent the Hamilton West electoral district. He gave his first speech in parliament on September 20, 1968, and he said: “I am not the spokesman for the Negro; that honour has not been given to me. Do not let me ever give anyone that impression. However, I want the record to show that I accept the responsibility of speaking for him and all others in this great nation who feel that they are the subjects of discrimination because of race, creed or colour”. Alexander spent most of his time in Parliament on the opposition benches. However, he served as the Minister of Labour under Joe Clark’s short-lived minority government from 1979 to 1980.
After completing his tenure in parliament, Alexander served as Chair of the Workers Compensation Board of Ontario until 1985 when he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Subsequently, He became Chancellor of the University of Guelph for fifteen years exceeding that of any of his predecessors. In 2000, he was named Chair of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, advocating for race relations and veterans’ issues. He was appointed to the Order of Ontario, became a Companion of the Order of Canada, and received many other honours in his illustrious career. Alexander died in 2012 and was accorded a state funeral. Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University)’s law faculty was renamed in his honour in 2021.
Dave Tulloch was born in Jamaica. He immigrated to Canada in 1970 to pursue post-secondary education. He earned a diploma in electronics engineering technology from Algonquin College, a Bachelor of Administration and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hon) from the University of Ottawa, and a Master of Business Administration from Concordia University. He has had an extensive career in information technology; as a computer engineer with Digital Equipment, an information systems consultant with Systemhouse, KPMG, and then with Oracle Corporation in the USA where he retired as a director in the Oracle Cloud Services Organization. He taught information systems and business courses at CEGEP (Hull) and later tutored at Wake Tech College in North Carolina. Dave wrote many articles for the Ottawa Spectrum, a publication focussing on Ottawa’s Visible Minority community within Ottawa during the 1980s and 90s. Dave’s publication of the book entitled Ottawa’s Caribbean Community – History and Profiles since 1955, documents the history of Blacks in Ottawa and the life stories of early Caribbean Immigrants to Canada’s Capital City. This book is being distributed by Amazon worldwide, by the publisher at petrabooks.ca, and it can be purchased from major book resellers including Indigo in Canada and Barnes & Noble in the USA where it was promoted as one of the best books in 2023.