Robert Connell (Canadian politician)

Robert Connell (1871–1957) was a clergyman and politician in British Columbia. He was the first leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in British Columbia (now the British Columbia New Democratic Party).

Born in Liverpool, England to Scottish parents and raised in 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 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 joined the BC Reconstructionist 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.

Connell agreed to run for the provincial legislature as a CCF candidate in the 1933 provincial election, the new party won seven seats, including Connell's Victoria City riding. With the collapse of the governing Conservative Party, which was in such disarray it decided not to run any candidates, and the election of a Liberal government the CCF found itself as the official opposition in the British Columbia legislature. Leaderless, the party caucus met and agreed to appoint Connell as Leader of the Opposition.

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