Robert Connell

Robert Connell (June 4, 1871 – November 13, 1957) was a Scottish-Canadian Anglican priest and politician in British Columbia. He was the first leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party in British Columbia (now the British Columbia New Democratic Party). Biography Born in Liverpool, England, to Scottish parents and raised around Glasgow, Scotland, Connell worked for a shipping company before coming to Canada at the age of 17. After seven years working in various jobs he moved to Calgary to train to become a Church of England minister. He was ordained a deacon in 1895 a priest in 1896 and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, in 1901 after several years of mission work in Alberta. He served as a vicar in various parishes (including two years in California) before retiring from the pulpit in 1923. Connell was also involved with education occasionally teaching art at a private boys' school and botany at Victoria High School. He also wrote a weekly column on nature and geology for the Victoria Daily Times and later the Victoria Daily Colonist. In 1932, Connell joined the League for Social Reconstruction and also became leader of the BC Reconstruction Party formed by some supporters of the LSR in British Columbia. The short-lived party quickly joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation after it was formed in August of the same year.