Charles Macnamara (Charlie) O'Brien (March 2, 1875 – February 23, 1952) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

socialist activist and politician in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. He served in the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

from 1909 to 1913.

Biography

O'Brien was born at Bell Rapids, near Bangor,

Hastings County, Ontario Hastings County is a county and Census divisions of Canada, census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. Geographically, it is located on the border of Eastern Ontario and Central Ontario. Hastings County is the second-largest county in ...

, to John Patrick and Matilda (née Price) O'Brien; his father perished in the sinking of the boat, the ''Mayflower,'' on the Madawaska River in 1912. Charles O'Brien worked in the

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksmining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

industries and in

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

camps. In 1899, he came west to Alberta while working as a laborer on the

Crowsnest Pass Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, ) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border. Geography The pass is located in southeast British Columbia an ...

line of the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

. A dedicated socialist, he joined the

Socialist Party of Canada The Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) was a political party that existed from 1904 to 1925, led by E. T. Kingsley. It published the newspaper, '' Western Clarion''. History Establishment The Socialist Party of Canada was founded at the Sociali ...

and became a national organizer for the party, and leader of its Alberta branch. O'Brien was a skilled orator and author, drawing comparisons to prominent activists such as

Bill Haywood William Dudley Haywood (February 4, 1869 – May 18, 1928), nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American labor organizer and founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a member of the executive committee of the Socia ...

Jack London John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...

and

Eugene V. Debs Eugene Victor Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five-time candidate of the Socialist Party o ...

. In 1909, O'Brien ran for the

in the new Rocky Mountain constituency. Despite not garnering official union support, he nevertheless attracted wide support among the district's coal-miners. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a member of the

Socialist Party of Alberta The Socialist Party of Alberta was a provincial branch of the Socialist Party of Canada. The party formed out of a socialist movement that began with miners in the District of Alberta, Northwest Territories. 1908 Federal Election F.H. Sherman of ...

, narrowly defeating Liberal John Angus Macdonald by 32 votes. The first Socialist elected to the legislature, the vote "reflected a growing radicalization" among Alberta

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

miners, O'Brien's core constituency. The local newspaper, ''Coleman Miner'', claimed O'Brien's election was engineered by his supporters through their manipulation of the immigrant vote: During his term in office, he worked to improve the working conditions of miners. In December 1910, he introduced an amendment to the existing Coal Mines Act, proposing many additional safety measures in the industry. O'Brien also initiated a bill permitting the Alberta government to protect an apparent Russian

fugitive A fugitive or runaway is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...

(charged with

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

for assassination of a Russian governor and

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

) by refusing to extradite him back to Russia if investigation showed that he faced political persecution back in Russia. Upon the death of King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until Death and state funeral of Edward VII, his death in 1910. The second child ...

, members of the legislature made speeches of condolence to the royal family. However, O'Brien said, "Why all this empty hypocrisy? The king was a man who worked little and ate well," which prompted the members to pelt him with debris. He also participated in the

Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Northern Alberta Railways was a Canadian railway which served northern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Jointly owned by both Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, NAR existed as a separate company from 1929 until 19 ...

debate and set a provincial legislative record for filibustering with a speech to the house on February 13, 1912, that lasted five hours and fifty minutes; he still had not finished when the session was adjourned late at night. While in office, he continued to work as a socialist activist. In 1909, he was arrested while giving a speech near a highway in Regina. A crowd of 500 had gathered, which resulted in O'Brien's arrest for obstructing traffic. In 1911, he made a Canada-wide tour to promote socialist ideals. The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada endorsed O'Brien when he ran for re-election in 1913. In the 1913 general election, he doubled his vote as compared to 1909, but was nevertheless defeated by

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Robert E. Campbell by just over 80 votes. In 1915, O'Brien moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, where he died in 1952.Charles Obrien, "California, Death Index, 1940-1997"
FamilySearch, accessed February 18, 2014.

Electoral history

Footnotes

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta: Members' Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Charles M. Socialist Party of Alberta MLAs Canadian people of Irish descent 1875 births 1952 deaths 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta