Sidney Parsons

Sidney Parsons
23rd Mayor of Edmonton
In office November 2, 1949 – November 7, 1951
Preceded by	Harry Dean Ainlay
Succeeded by	William Hawrelak
Alderman on the Edmonton City Council
In office November 9, 1938 – November 2, 1949
Personal details
Born	April 11, 1893 Revelstoke, near Plymouth, Devon, England
Died	April 22, 1955 (aged 62) Edmonton, Alberta
Political party	Citizens Committee, Independent
Other political affiliations	Labour
Spouse(s)	Gertrude Florence Smitt
Children	Three sons
Profession	Bricklayer

Sidney Parsons (c. 1893 – April 22, 1955) was a Canadian politician, mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, and candidate for election to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Parsons was born in Revelstoke, near to Plymouth, Devon, England in 1893. He was educated in Plymouth, but he and his parents immigrated to New Jersey in the early 1900s. He attended technical schools there, and began work as a bricklayer with the Standard Oil Company in Bayonne, New Jersey.

In 1910, he moved to Edmonton, where he enlisted in the armed forces to fight in World War I. He served with the 49th Battalion, under the command of fellow future mayor William Antrobus Griesbach. Upon his return to Canada, Parsons married Gertrude Florence Smitt on January 8, 1918; the pair would have three sons.

In his post-war life, Parsons was active in the labour movement and served as an executive officer of the Edmonton Trades & Labour Council (he would serve as its president from 1941 until 1945).

Parsons first sought elected office in the 1931 Edmonton election, when he ran for Edmonton City Council as an aldermanic candidate. He finished seventh of fifteen candidates, and was not elected. He fared similarly in the 1932 and 1934 elections.

In the 1935 provincial election, Parsons ran as a Labour candidate in the riding of Edmonton; he finished last of twenty-seven candidates, winning only fifty-two votes.

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