20 Facts About Dan Heap

Daniel James Macdonnell Heap was a Canadian activist and politician.

Dan Heap represented the Toronto, Ontario, riding of Spadina from 1981 to 1993 and Ward 6 on Toronto City Council from 1972 to 1981.

Dan Heap was born on September 24,1925, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, into a middle-class family, the second of four children.

Dan Heap's father, Fred Heap, was a lawyer and his mother was a piano teacher.

Dan Heap's maternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister inspiring Dan Heap, from a young age, to want to take up the same calling.

Dan Heap was raised a Presbyterian in a family that was concerned about social causes.

Dan Heap later became a member of the Society of the Catholic Commonwealth and of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, forerunner of the New Democratic Party.

Dan Heap studied theology at the University of Chicago for a year before becoming an Anglican and transferring to McGill University to pursue a divinity degree.

Dan Heap moved his family to Toronto where he worked for 18 years as a labourer in a cardboard box factory in Toronto, where he became involved in the paperworker's union and was elected a union representative and attempted to "bring socialism to the Canadian worker".

Dan Heap entered politics and campaigned on a platform to oppose poverty, war and homelessness.

Dan Heap ran as the New Democratic Party's candidate in Spadina in the 1968 federal election placing second in a campaign where he described himself as a "worker priest".

Dan Heap defeated Coutts in the by-election and was re-elected in the 1984 and 1988 elections.

Dan Heap was an outspoken MP, and campaigned against poverty, homelessness, and war.

Dan Heap served as NDP critic on immigration, served on the member of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Labour, Employment and Immigration, and was a prominent spokesperson for social justice issues both in Canada and abroad.

Dan Heap was very concerned with issues such as refugees, the situations in Central America, East Timor, and South Africa.

Dan Heap hired a young Olivia Chow as his constituency office assistant.

Dan Heap remained involved at the downtown Church of the Holy Trinity and social justice issues within the Anglican Church of Canada.

Dan Heap co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee to campaign on the issue of homelessness.

Dan Heap suffered a heart attack in 2005 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2006.

In October 2011, Dan Heap was admitted to the Kensington Gardens facility and his wife Alice got a spot there later that month.